Mass Effect: Degradation
by DrakeCross
Summary: The USG Ishimura has arrived at the Citadel, bringing it's deadly cargo to the station and an unsuspecting galaxy. Shepard and his team now face a new threat after just surviving their suicide mission on the Collector Base, something that is possibly as horrifying as the Reapers. The Illusive Man and other shadowy forces also seek the dark secrets hidden on the mining ship.
1. Prologue: Infection

**Prologue: Infection**

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Mass Effect or Dead Space in any way.

 **Author's note:** Author's note: 6 long years. Took me that long to remember having worked on this before life just took over. I'm sorry for all the fans who praised my story and just left them hanging but now it's time I finish what I started. I have a fresh new profile, 6 more years of writing experience and at least a ton of sequel games from both series to improve on plot elements. All I can hope is that I provide an even better crossover then before!

The story takes place after paragon soldier Shepard and the entire team had destroyed the Collector Base. Isaac is still on the Ishimura before he leaves it for Aegis VII to return the red marker when the Ishimura enters the Mass Effect universe.

 **…..**

In the center of the Serpent Nebula was the Citadel, the massive space station that was home to the powerful Citadel Counsel who maintained the balance with all united alien civilizations; it was just a normal day for the millions of people who lived on the grand space station, along with the hundreds of space ships that traveled to it daily. On the space station was Citadel Control, the main hub for organizing ship docking and making sure scans of the nebula were clear of any anomalies. All the technicians in the control room were busy working on their computers, Omni-tools, or talking to different ships through the com-system. Many of them were tired out from the constant work, or just plain bored with their job. One extremely bored turian stood out, since he was the only one not busy talking to any of the approaching ships and was just slowing working on a small report.

"In coming system scan report." Spoke a cool female voice of the Citadel Control command computer VI.

Giving a bored sigh, the turian technician saved his report and started typing on the console, making the recent scans taken around Citadel Space appear on the screen. He was pretty sure there was nothing new or important about the scans, but ever since the attack of the Geth and Sovereign, it had become a full on daily routine. However something new had appeared on the report and it was big. With a concerned look, the turian closely read the report to make sure what he was reading was correct. Quickly, he turned his seat around to look at a human, who was the staff supervisor, standing in the center of the control room and looking over the shoulders of the other technicians' work.

"Sir, we have an unknown spacecraft entering the Nebula and heading towards the Citadel!"

"What is it, the Geth? How could they have traveled here through the Mass Relay without being detected?" The staff supervisor demanded as he hurried over to the turian's computer to look at the report.

"That's the thing sir…it just appeared out of nowhere. It must have been traveling with engine power alone or maybe a FTL System, but it would take months just to get here from the nearest star system."

The supervisor shook his head as he read the scan report, then looked through the control room window and out at the glowing Nebula. Far off in the distance was the ship, which seemed like it was just cruising out purple light of the star.

"Get one of the station's cameras to zoom in on the approaching ship." The supervisor ordered in a serious tone to the turian.

The turian nodded and typed in a new command, making the screen change into a closer view toward the distant ship. The supervisor leaned in closer a pressed a key to zoom the image closer until they had a full view of the ship.

"My god…It's huge!" Muttered the turian as the ship slowly continued to drift closer towards the Citadel. "Capital ship sized. Maybe even bigger!"

"Seems so yet it's lacking any real weapons or at least nothing that we don't recognize as one. By design it seems more like a mining ship, something that can handle some serious abuse yet the size nears planet sized." The Supervisor paused as he looked over more detailed scans on the ship condition. "Multiple hull breaches, engines on backup and gravity systems seem to be disabled in many parts of the ship. It's a miracle that this ship is holding together." Commented the Supervisor as he made the camera pan around to view all the angles of the Citadel, stopping it when came over the name of the ship.

"The USG Ishimura…Sounds like a human ship, but it does not look like any of the ships they have. Design isn't on any historical records either." Commented the technician as he started to do a scan of the vessel.

The staff supervisor nodded and then answered back. "You're right. I know my ships and I know we've made nothing of this size. "

"Well…For a ghost ship there seems to a lot of movement inside, even a few life signs from what the scanners say." The turian said with a nervous look in his eyes.

With a thoughtful look, the supervisor moved back to the center of the control room and yelled out; "Everyone, we have a large damaged ship coming in towards the Citadel with possible injured personal inside! I need all ships to either dock right now or back away from the Citadel for an emergency docking on capital ship docking; we got a least thirty minutes before it reaches us, so get moving people!"

Citadel Control was in a rush of action as calls to ships were made and rapid commands were typed into multiple computers, making ships quickly dock or quickly fly out of the Citadel. As the USG Ishimura continued its slow drift towards the space station, the staff supervisor called C-Sec office to get some officers and a medical team ready for whoever or whatever may be on the ship.

 **…..**

Inside the main docking bay, the C-Sec and medical team stood by the airlock doors until there was a beep and a light on top of the door glowed green, followed by the doors opening with the hiss of decompression.

"Alright everyone, our job is to see how bad the situation on the ship is. From what we know, the power is out in many parts of the ship, but since the ship is docked we don't have to worry about life-support." said the leading turian C-sec officer to the other members of the team.

"Be ready for anything, for all we know this ship may have husks or even Geth on it for all we know." He pulled out his M-3 Predator and checked to make sure the thermal clip was in place with a small amused chuckle at the idea of a good fight.

Some of the other officers laughed a bit as well and took out their own weapons, but the medical team just shook their heads with disapproval. The leading officer then walked into the air lock and pressed a button to open the second airlock door into the Ishimura. The leading officer gave a curse as he looked into the pitch black darkness of the ship. Suddenly, yellow glowing eyes appeared in the darkness to stare out at the two teams ominously.

"What the hell…?" Muttered the leading officer as more glowing eyes appeared in the darkness, followed by low feral growls toward them.

Raising his gun up he flicked on the flash light and then gave a terrified scream at what he saw, before a sharp bone blade stabbed right through his throat. He dropped his gun as his hands grasped at his neck to try and stop the bleeding until another blade cut through his armor shields and sunk into his chest. Falling to the ground, he could hear the bloodcurdling screeches of the deadly creatures rushed pass him, followed by the rest of the team firing their guns franticly followed by their screams of horror and pain before his vision faded into darkness…

 **Author's Note:** Not much of a change here. Just some grammer changes and add-ons to a few sentences. Overall I hope everyone is glad to see this story return after so long.


	2. Chapter 1: Descent

**Chapter One: Descent**

 **…..**

Shepard was staring out into the dark void of space, the faint lights of distant stars flickering before him. The universe seemed calm and peaceful for once, giving Shepard a strange sense of safety after so much fighting. The Collectors were wiped out, their Human Reaper destroyed and the Illusive Man's plans set back as well.

Then there seemed to be a ripple in space, as the light of distant stars were being blocked out, as a tear ripped open a void of pure darkness. A great ship slowly drifted out of the torn piece of space and into the dim light of the distant stars, leaving that empty void which steamed to grow. Shepard thought it was the Reapers, having somehow reached their galaxy sooner than believed, but then the ship came into full view. It was not a Reaper ship, but instead a large and badly damaged mining ship of some kind.

Then suddenly the sounds of whispers and muttering filled the air, an indescribable language starting to fill Shepard's mind and pushing any other thoughts aside. The voices then faded and were replaced with howls and screams which were in turn replaced by voices again as the ship loamed over him as if ready to devour him whole. Shepard felt an unnerving sense of panic fill his heart as the shadow of the looming ship enveloped him.

 **…..**

Commander John Shepard woke up from his sleep with a gasp and sat up in his bed. He breathed heavily for a few moments to calm himself from the dark and surreal dream he had just had. Memories of the Collector Base came to him, of the rescue of the Normandy's crew, the discovery and fight with the Human Reaper along with the destruction of the base. That had been about a week ago. Since then the Normandy has been slowly traveling back toward the Citadel, taking it's time to repair any damages and allow the crew to rest after the suicide mission. Still, he knew the Reapers where still coming and they had to be ready…yet why did he feel that dream and that ship he saw was bringing just a terrible?

'It was just a bad dream…Nothing more…' He thought as he got out of bed and changed into his uniform.

As he headed for the elevator down Combat Information Center the small hologram projector near it activated and the blue sphere of EDI appeared on it.

"Good morning Commander Shepard." Spoke the smooth calm voice of the ship's AI.

"Hello EDI. Have the repairs to the ship been complete yet?"

"Yes. All primary systems have been fully restored and secondary systems are now being full attended to."

"Good. We don't want to look too beaten down once we get back to Citadel and meet the Council. We have a lot of discus after all the data we retrieved from the Collectors" Shepard said as he then pressed the button to call up the elevator.

"Speaking about the Citadel, we received a message from Councilor Anderson while you were asleep. It seems very important and he wished to speak to you along with the rest of the crew." EDI said quickly just as the light above the elevator turned green, showing that it was ready.

"Then quickly call up everyone to the meeting room and open a com channel up to him." Shepard told EDI as the elevator doors and he came face to face with Tali.

"Very well Shepard." EDI said as her hologram disappeared, but Shepard barely heard her as the shy looking quarian stared back at him with a faint look of surprise hidden behind her mask. Ever since their relationship had started, Tali had been working more enthusiastically during their missions and in the engine room. However, she always got nervous around Shepard and always seemed to worry about the immunity condition that her race bared, fearing that it would cause him to worry too much about her.

"S-Shepard…I just was coming up to check on you!" She said in a surprised manner. "Ever since the Collector Base, you had been staying in your cabin most of the time. Everyone has been starting to worry about you."

Shepard gave a small smile, the dark mood of the dream leaving him after hearing Tali's concerned words. He had been spending more time away from Tali and the rest of the crew after the attack, thinking over how he would have to convince the Council to unite against the Reaper threat and start planning on how to defeat them.

"I'm sorry Tali. Just been a lot on my mind since we stopped the Collectors. After all we went through, it's just been stressful for me."

"I see. Well...Just don't forget about the rest of us, Shepard. We are always ready to help you no matter what." She said in a more confident voice as she stepped aside in the elevator to let him enter it.

"Trust me Tali, I could never forgot you or anyone else after all we have been through together. After all we when through the impossible." He said as he stepped into the elevator and pressed a button, sending them down to the second level.

Tali and Shepard were silent as the elevator headed down, both of them giving side looks at each other. Then Tali turned to look at Shepard and was about to speak to him before the elevator stopped moving and the doors quickly slid open. Before Shepard could ask what she was going to say she was already walking out of the elevator and heading for the meeting room.

Giving a small sigh, he following after her towards the meeting room, hoping to get the briefing over with quickly so he could talk to her and end her worries about their relationship.

As he walked into the meeting room, he found the entire team standing around the projector table which had an image of Councilor Anderson in the center of it. Shepard looked at the faces of Garrus, Grunt, Jack, Jacob, Legion, Miranda, Mordin, Samara, Tali, and Thane, who all turned to look at him. All of them had endured the Suicide Mission against the Collectors, defying all odds as they didn't endure a single loss. He knew he could trust and rely on them all, knowing nothing could outmatch what they've been through.

"Good morning everyone. I hope everyone has recovered well after our last mission." Shepard said after a moment of silence.

Everyone nodded and then Mordin stepped up and said; "Everyone is near full recovery. A few minor aches and pains, but nothing too serious to stop us from doing our duties."

Shepard nodded, glad to know that everyone was fine and then looked toward the hologram of Anderson.

"So why the sudden message Anderson? Did the Council come to an understanding about the Reapers after all those reports we've forward to you." Shepard asked the councilor.

Anderson shook his head and said. "No…It's something far more serious." Giving a moment of pause he then continued to speak. "About four days ago an unknown ship entered the Serpent Nebula and drifted towards the Citadel. From what we could tell from scans is that it is a large mining colony ship called the 'Ishimura'. It's of human design yet not part of any known records, far too big and crude to anything built in the past or present. It was critically damaged from what seemed to be from internal damage, perhaps from a boarding attack or sabotage."

The hologram shifted to a scan print of the ship which was quite massive when compared to other known vessels. Details on exact damage and scanned technology was shown, even some strange signals mixed in.

"Scans picked up few life signs and a lot of movement on board. Overall the ship was just on a drift course and Control had no means of stopping it besides a close range mass effect field to draw it into docking. It was a risk considering the unknown variables yet we couldn't let this thing ram into the station." Anderson added.

Anderson then became silent as he took a moment to let everyone review the data.

"Gravity tethers, massive scanning arrays and what seem to be plasma vents of some kind. If this was meant for mining this thing could break down a small planet." Garrus remarked as he took a deeper look on the ship specs. "Crew size could be about 100 yet the extra designs can mean more of a colony size of about 2000."

"Recovery and repair teams were quickly dispatched once it docked yet as soon as the main bay doors were opened they suffered a sudden attack. Security measures were set yet whatever came out bypassed them within hours. Whole sectors started facing attacks and the Council ordered a lockdown on the entire Ward. Reports have become more confusing over time and now communication with the Control Station and C-Sec there have gone completely quite. Currently the Council is pinning this as a Geth attack, claiming the ship was a 'Trojan Horse' for infiltrating."

When Anderson talked about the attack being on the Geth, Legion quickly spoke up.

"Unlikely. Since the Heretics have rejoined there can be no more for our kind to do such an attack. Besides, there has been no activity in the network about planning for an attack on the Citadel."

"Like I said, this is what the Council has told the public, they don't want to present this as a new and unknown threat. They're claiming there is an unexpected accident involving the ship to give an excuse for the lockdown. Still all investigation teams sent in have gone silent within hours and Control has been disconnected to Ward functions within the last three days." Anderson quickly said back. "But even so…I don't believe this is related to the Reapers. Something seems different about this."

Shepard shook his head before speaking up. "Reapers or not, if the Citadel is in trouble we are still going to help out in any way we can."

Anderson gave a small smile and nod for thanks to Shepard. "Good…The Council wants you to dock near the area where we lost contact with Ward Citadel Control, keeping away from the unknown ship as much as possible. Find out what is going on and get things back to order."

"Will do Anderson, we will try to contact you back soon." Shepard replied back as Anderson ended the transmission.

As Anderson's image disappeared, everyone on the team then started talking amongst themselves over what they had just learned. Garrus turned to look at Shepard and said; "Well…So much for relaxing back at the Citadel. Still it does not make sense about how contact had been lost. Even if Geth hacked into the system, they would still have a way to at least send out a distress signal. So what is possibly stopping them from doing that?"

Shepard just gave a small shrug and said; "We just have to wait and see, Garrus. Don't worry, I'm sure everything will turn out fine in the end."

"If you say so, Commande." Garrus said before he walked past him and headed back to his work station.

"Don't see why he should be complaining. This is just another good chance for a fight." Grunt muttered. "After a week resting, I'm already getting tired of just standing around doing nothing."

"Well it's different for Garrus, Grunt. The Citadel is pretty much his home so it really means a lot to him." Shepard replied back.

Grunt just gave an annoyed huff, not really caring about how Garrus felt about the situation before he quickly left the meeting room.

"Don't worry about Grunt, Shepard. The lack of action is just getting to him. In time he will be more understanding." Jacob said before he headed back to the armory, while Miranda followed him out back to her office.

"Interesting…first was Collectors and now this. Maybe the Citadel event is related to them. Unlikely…but it is worth looking into." Mordin muttered to himself before he left to go back to his lab.

"We will continue to look through the network. Perhaps data on this ship's origins can be found." Legion said before he left as well.

Jack just gave a shrug and spoke in a bored manner; "Why bother trying to figure things out? Everyone is just better off waiting until we get there, at least once there we'll know what's going on…" She then walked off to her place at the bottom of the ship.

"For once, I agree with Jack…The best answer will come to us once we are there. Better to rest and prepare." Samara replied as she left as well with Thane following close after her, leaving Shepard and Tali alone with each other.

Tali just stared at Shepard silently, a look of concern in her eyes. Slowly she walked up to Shepard and said; "Never a break from the action, Shepard? Makes me wonder when there will be a time when things could be peaceful for once…"

She gave a sigh and looked away from him, trying to hide the sadness she felt. Shepard knew what Tali meant and at times he wished for the same ideals, but he knew that things could not change that quickly.

"Tali, I know we have been through a lot together. From fighting Saren and Sovereign, the two years with me being gone and then battling the Collectors. I just know that sooner or later, everything will settle down." He said to her kindly as he held her hands.

"You're right, but what if you or I die, or something causes everyone to be separated? I want things to be the way that they should be!" Tali muttered as she looked up at him with a worried look in her eyes.

Giving a small smile Shepard said; "How about this. After this mission we take a few weeks off…Just you and me."

Tali gave a surprised but quickly happy gaze before nodding and spoke in an excited voice; "Really, you mean it! Wow…That would be nice, even if it was a short while. It would mean a lot to me, Shepard!"

"Then it's a promise, Tali." Shepard said before he held her in a close embrace.

Tali hugged him back, and after a long moment they both let go. She'd then headed for the door and out of the meeting room, but then paused and turned to look back at Shepard before speaking; "Thank you…Shepard.", and then she quickly turned away to head back to the engine room, leaving Shepard alone with his thoughts.

Shepard took a moment to think over the time they would spend together. It was amazing how things had worked out between both of them, even with Tali's weak immune system forcing her to wear her suit. He hoped that this mission would be quick and easy, so that everyone could have the time they needed to rest.

'Nothing can go wrong, after everything we have done and seen I doubt there will be anything that can faze us on this mission.' He thought as he left the meeting room to go and prepare for the Citadel.

 **…..**

Light-years away in a well-hidden space station, the Illusive Man looked out at the glowing blue nebula, thinking over Shepard's latest actions. It had already been a week since Shepard had destroyed the Collector Base, taking away any technology that could prove as an advantage for Cerberus and mankind. Even so, Shepard still was valuable, even if he did not believe in Cerberus' methods. He took a last drag of his cigarette before he put it out in the nearby ashtray. Then, the sound of footsteps came behind him until they stopped behind his chair.

"So is it true, about Shepard investigating the incident happening at the Citadel?" Asked a figure standing in the darkness of the room.

"Yes…I heard it from Commander Shepard himself. They should have known better to think that I would not still have ways to listen to them." The Illusive Man answered back.

"Of course sir, so what is our next course of action?"

"You and your team will get into the closed off Ward of the Citadel to collect any information and technology that this mystery ship has. If the information is correct, there should be a weapon, a bio-weapon to be exact, that can either be a threat or an advantage for us."

The man nodded, understanding what the Illusive Man told him. "Still sir, what kind of bio-weapon are we talking about? I don't want to go in there and get my men infected."

"It is harmless toward anyone still living, but any dead human or alien will prove otherwise. This thing is from another universe, something that even the Reapers have never seen before. With it, the tide of future wars with them will change for humanity's' dominance."

He paused to light up another cigarette and took a long breath from it, before turning to face the shadowed man.

"Do not fail me, Agent…You know what happens when people let me down." He said in a low and serious manner to the Cerberus Agent.

The man stepped out into the light showing his full appearance. He was dressed full Cerberus combat armor, holding his helmet in one arm.

"I have never failed before, and I don't plan to fail yet." He said in determination before he turned away to gather his team, leaving the Illusive Man to look out at the blue nebula.

 **….**

"Approaching the Citadel, Normandy will be docking in less the five minutes!" Said Joker over the Normandy's speaker system, the massive space station coming into the ship's view.

Crew members hurried to their work stations to prepare for the ship's landing while Shepard's team headed for the meeting room for their final mission briefing. Shepard entered meeting room to find everyone with their weapons strapped in their holsters and backs, Shepard himself being dressed in full N7 armor, but not wearing the usual helmet. He was also equipped with an assault rifle, hand cannon pistol, sniper rifle, shotgun, and grenade launcher. He moved to take his place at the far end of the table before he looked at his team with a serious expression.

"Alright, from what we know, we are pretty much facing an unknown enemy. However, they are on the Citadel, which we have the advantage over." He said in a commanding way. "Since there is much of this Ward to cover, we are going to split into two teams, one led by me and the other by Garrus."

Shepard looked over at Garrus, who nodded in agreement and the said; "I was once part of C-Sec, so I know my way around the station and can get into the security grid with the codes that I remember."

"Yes…Your job is to investigate the C-Sec Headquarters in the Wector and see what help or information you can get. My team will head for local Citadel Control to learn more about this unknown ship. Later on, we will find a rendezvous point in docking to plan out next objective."

Everyone nodded in agreement towards the plan before Garrus stepped off to the side and said; "So, who will be on my squad, Captain Shepard?"

"You will be having Grunt, Jacob, Samara, Miranda and Legion going with you. My team will consist of Tali, Jack, Mordin and Thane. Everyone is to stay together at all costs and to remain in radio contact. Now, let's get this mission over with quickly now shall we?"

The ship soon entered the docking bay on the other side of the Citadel sector, soon coming to a smooth stop as mechanical arms came out to hold the ship in place.

"Normandy completely docked sir, feel free to head out onto the station." Said Joker over the speakers.

Garrus nodded and signaled for his team to head for the airlock. As he passed by Shepard, he quickly spoke; "Be careful out there, Shepard. I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling about this mission."

"I'm sure it will be fine, Garrus. We are all just stressed from our last mission, so let's not overdo ourselves on this one alright?" He replied back.

"Yes…your right. Don't worry commander, I won't let you or the rest of the team down." He then hurried after his own team before following them into the airlock.

After a few minutes, Shepard led his team into the airlock as well before he pressed a button to close to door behind them. The hiss of decompression began, preparing them for boarding the Citadel. Shepard looked over at Thane, Jack, Mordin, and Tali; all of them ready to face whatever waiting on the space station. Soon the hissing stopped and the green light of the door in front of them turned green.

"Alright everyone…move out!" Ordered Shepard as he drew his assault rifle as the door slid open in front of them. He quickly ran forward into the Citadel, everyone else drawing out their weapons as they followed after the commander. Little did they know that the hidden horrors that lay within already knew they were coming…

 **….**

Far off on the other side of the Citadel Ward by the main docks, a man dressed in an iron colored suit walked down the hallways carefully. Isaac Clarke knew that things were now much worse than they had been before ever since the USG Ishimura had been transported into this unknown sector of space. From what he could tell, the ship had drifted toward this large space station and the inhabitants had allowed the ship to dock, not knowing of the deadly cargo it held.

Everything here was different from any space station he knew. It was far too sleek and huge to be human made and it sure wasn't related to the more alien aspects he had seen related to the Marker. All he remembered was a sudden flux with the ShockPoint Drive after he had the Marker removed from its cargo hold. Maybe there was some force trying to stop him, since the surge knocked him and seemingly taken the ship away from Aegis VII.

Having checked the bridge it turned out the ship was locked in by some gravity field, no doubt from the massive space station. He had to get to control and disengage it, yet for the last few days he had been struggling just to get off the infested mining ship and then wander through the massive station. The area was the size of a city and between the Necromorphs, technical hazards and unknown technology he was being slowed down.

He had to. Nicole was counting on him and every hour that passed he felt stress and worry grow stronger. "I'll pull through. I haven't gotten this far to give up…" He muttered, getting his plasma cutter fully loaded as he could hear the infected nearby, the mix of strange twisted sounds filling the air.

 **Author's Note:** More corrections and changes to the story. Thought to add in more details for Shepard and his team along with expanding the time frame of when the ship arrived. After all I do see Mass Effect tech being more advanced then Dead Space's in certain degrees, so they'd no doubt have better ways to cut off the Necromorphs from the overall station. Still a single Citadel Ward can have over a million people…so plenty of new bodies to turn.


	3. Chapter 2: Disconnetion

**Chapter Two: Disconnection**

A beam of light scanned through the dimly lit hallway before quickly fading, as Shepard quickly and carefully led his team deeper into the Citadel. So far there had been nothing out of place besides the lack of power, but still a feeling of uncertainty hang over the commander. Soon, the last door to leading out of the docking and transit area stood in their way. Shepard noticed how the door was in lockdown mode, which meant that someone must have sealed it from the other side. Tali, Jack, Thane, and Mordin soon gathered around the door, wondering why Shepard had stopped.

"Door is sealed off." Shepard said before anyone could as him. "Looks like some major encryptions on it that I can't even get open."

Tali then stepped over beside him and then activated her omni-tool on her arm.

"Leave it to me Shepard; I'll have it cracked into just a moment." She said in a confident tone.

Shepard nodded and moved away to let Tali work on the door, standing back with the rest of the group. Then Garrus's voice cracked on his headset communicator.

"Shepard, we just ran into a door set to lockdown. Right now Legion is busy getting it open, but something is strange with it being like this."

"Why is that?" Shepard asked.

"Well…Lockdown is only used if there is a major combat in a ward, like a Geth invasion, or to act as quarantine to stop any infectious diseases from spreading around the Citadel or to other space systems."

"So which one is it then?"

"I can't be sure…C-Sec keeps records about anything like that happening, so once we reach their HQ we'll find out what happened."

"Alright Garrus, be careful out there."

"Don't worry commander, Garrus out." He said before ending the transmission.

As soon as the transmission ended, there was a click and buzz sound from the door, followed by Tali giving faint laugh at her success.

"Let's hurry up commander." She said as she pressed a button to make the door quickly slide open and made a human body fall forward from the other side.

Tali gave a shocked gasp as she quickly stepped away from the door as the body felled face first to the ground. Everyone, but Shepard and Tali aimed their guns at the body, while Shepard carefully walked over to the body. Carefully he flipped it over to show the face and front of the body. His face was badly crushed and slashed up, which left nothing to help identify him. Also the chest had long cuts and stab wounds all over, as if someone had just used some long blade or a rabid Varen had mauled him.

"Shit…What the hell happened to him?" Said Jack as she moved closer to get a better look of the dead body. "Not even the crazies back in prison could fuck someone up like this."

Mordin stepped up to look over the wounds as well and started to do some scans with his omni-tool.

"Human male. Maintenance worker by look of uniform. Obvious cause cause of dead multiple stab wounds to vital organs. Wounds seem to lack any real coordination or combat experience. Seems little more than blind enraged attacked. Decay been dead for at least twelve hours from what I can determine." He commented after a moment doing some quick scans.

"Weapon must have been very crude from the looks of it. Does not seem to be from any knife or bladed weapon I have seen." Said Thane as he looked around the other side of the door to make sure there was no one else on the other side.

"Still…who or what could have done this?" Ask Tali as she gave a worried look towards Shepard.

"I don't know, but we are here to find out." Shepard said back as he then activated his communicator to link it to the Normandy and Garrus's team.

"EDI, Joker, Garrus, we got a casualty. Someone or something brutality cut and stabbed some maintenance worker, so that means we can cross the Geth off our list of attackers."

"Jeez commander! Well what the heck is behind all of this?" Ask Joker.

"I don't know…EDI, can you do a scan of the wards so we can at least guess on how many people are still around."

"Very well commander…" Replied EDI, before she became silent for a few moments to start the scan and process the results. "Strange…I am picking up life signs, minus Keepers, in different parts throughout the wards. There are thousands of people around, most hiding in lock downed homes or emergency stations. However, I am picking up movement all over the place, yet there are not life signs creating the movement."

"This doesn't make sense…" Muttered Garrus through the communicator, a hint of confusion in his voice. "It can't be Geth since this doesn't match their usual tactics. My last guess would be husks, but since when did they ever use blades or even weapons. It just does not add up…"

"I agree…Still we have a mission to do and sooner or later the answer will come to us."

"I hope your right commander…Garrus out." Garrus said in a worried tone just before he turned off the com-link.

Shepard turned off the com-link as well and turned to look at the rest of his squad.

"Let's keep moving, all lights towards the shadows and be ready for anything." He said before he stepped past the body and doorway, leading everyone deeper into the Ward.

… **..**

On the far side of the ward, a small landing cruiser with the Cerberus symbol quickly landed onto the central plaza. The doors quickly opened and a half a dozen Cerberus troops quickly moved out, spreading around to secure the landing zone.

"All clear Agent Blake." Yelled out one of the Cerberus trooper's back to the masked Cerberus agent, who was already walking out of the cruiser.

The agent looked around the plaza and at his squad, who were already gathering back towards him, ready for their orders.

"Good work…Now we need to get the commutation jammer up to stop anyone from try to report about us. Shepard is here and if he finds us then the Council and Alliance will try to track Cerberus down. Bet even try to pin this on us." Blake said in a serious and commanding manner to the dozen troopers.

"You were all handpicked by the Illusive Man for this mission. Failure is not allowed. Our objective here may change the tide for humanity against the Reapers and even the rest of the galaxy."

The Soldiers nodded in agreement and seeming more confident over their mission. Two of them walked pass Agent Blake and back into the cruiser to pull out what looked like a relay device of some kind, which they then placed next to the ship.

"This jammer is set to block any transmission other than our own. This will cause some problems for Shepard and his team, but I'm sure they will manage. Right now we need to find the right 'subject' to collect samples from, along with any tech we can take from the unknown ship. Now let's hurry up so we can get out of here."

The soldiers quickly started unloading the ship and setting up some lights to illuminate the area around the landing zone. Blake moved over to the jammer device and powered it up, making it give a blue glow and flash. There was a small crackle of static on his communicator, but it quickly subsided as his communicator by passed it

"Have fun Shepard…" He chuckled to himself after giving a small laugh, as he walked off to help organize the troops.

…..

Back on the Normandy, Joker was busy checking over EDI's scans of the Citadel Ward when the suddenly the screen showing Shepard's and Garrus's com signals went completely blank. Shaking his head, he quickly started typing on the computer to try and bring them back up.

"No…no…no! This can't be good…" He muttered to himself as he failed to reconnect with any of the teams. "Why does stuff like this always happen?"

"It seems like some transmission from within the Ward is causing a disruption with both our short and long distance communicators." Exclaimed EDI, as she suddenly appeared on the hologram right next to Joker.

"So you mean Shepard and the others are just on their own now? There has to be something we can do." Joker replied back.

"I'm already tracking down the transmission's source, but it will take time to locate and even longer to disable. We can only hope that the others will figure out what's wrong and try to shut it down somehow."

"I hope your right EDI…" Said Joker glumly as he sat back, keeping a close watch over the teams positions as they traveled deeper into the Citadel.

… **..**

"Damn it! Why can I contact Shepard or the Normandy?" Garrus said in frustration as he tried to use his com, but only got static.

Everyone was busy look around a Citadel Gift Shop set in a small shopping area where they had found signs of battle, mainly plenty of blood trails and heat sink clips scattered around.

"Seems like quite the battle. Way too much blood for a usual firefighter Said Jacob, who was kneeling down, busy taking a scan of the blood trail with his omni-tool. "Whoever made this sure isn't going to be getting up any time soon."

"Shop is empty…but Legion found something on the security camera." Grunt called out from the store.

"Alright everyone, let's go check out what Legion has found out." Ordered Garrus as he hurried into the store and found Legion and Grunt looking at the computer screen on the store counter. Soon Jacob, Miranda and Samara quickly followed after him and also gathered around the computer as well.

"This is footage from four days ago." Legion explained as he pressed the play button on the screen to start the security video.

The video had a view of the store counter, the main part of the store and a bit of the view just outside. There was an Asari clerk standing behind the counter, busy on the Externet looking through e-mails. Then she looked up from the computer as a group of people ran pass the store screaming. The Asari quickly hurried outside, just staying in the camera's view, before she gave a scream of terror as a large form lunged and pounced her out of view.

"What the hell was that?" Miranda asked Garrus in a nervous tone.

"Legion, back up to the moment of the attack and pause it…" Garrus said in a grave tone to the Geth.

"Complying…" Answered Legion, who revised the video then quickly paused it to have a full image of the attacker.

"What the hell is that!?" Muttered Grunt in surprised, yet interested manner, as he stared at the screen.

The creature on the screen had a lower jaw, but two long jutting fangs poked out from its upper jaw. It had two arms, but no legs, which seemed to be replaced by a long, sharp tail made up of a spine. The skin was deathly pale and patches of red, rotting flesh could be seen from protruding bones all over its body.

"By the goddess…never have I seen any creature this horrid before." Said Samara in that ever calm yet serious voice.

"This is wrong…Look at the head and the torso. It resembles a human by the way it looks, so that could mean only one thing…" Comment Miranda, who pointed out the human like features on the screen.

"A biological weapon…Makes the Husks look crude when it comes to a terror and cannon fodder. Said Jacob, who had already known what Miranda was thinking.

The team was already talking amongst themselves, giving their own ideas about this new threat, but then Garrus spoke up. "Quiet! Everyone!"

Everyone became silent and looked at him, looks of worry on their faces because of their new situation. After a moment of silence, Garrus spoke up again.

"We can't let our own fears get the better of us in this situation. For all we know these may just be a bunch of mutant experiments that escaped from the ship. Also if there is a disease we can't be sure if it's airborne or has a different way of infection. For all we know this disease may only affect humans."

Jacob and Miranda gave annoyed looks at Garrus, as if he did not really care if they died.

"Not that it would be a good thing if it could do that…" Garrus muttered in sorry way.

"Still, we need to find more info to figure out the truth and maybe even find some survivors. We've fought Collectors, Geth and all sorts of freaks, so let's not overact over this one. We have a mission to do so let's at least get it done."

Everyone nodded in agreement and Grunt gave a confident chuckle at the thought of fighting something new and dangerous. Then there came a low howling sound out in the darkness outside of the store. Everyone quickly turned and aimed their weapons out into the darkness, their built in lights barely lighting up the outside of the store.

"Everyone, move to defensive positions!" Ordered Garrus.

He quickly switched his assault rifle for the sniper rifle as he took cover behind the counter with Legion who had his rifle out as well. Grunt and Jacob moved up closer to the store entrance with their shotguns at the ready, while Samara and Miranda hid behind displays as their prepared to use their biotics. There was silence, the only sound was everyone breathing steadily, and waiting for whatever lay in wait deep in the darkness. Then the air filled with howls, moans and screams as yellow piercing eyes appeared. A long bone blade reached out forward and strapped the ground, before a large pale form jumped out to charge at the team.

"Open fire!" Garrus yelled out over the chorus of horrid screams and moans as a horde of twisted monsters rushed out, which soon was deafened by the sound of gun fire.

…

Just a few floors above Garrus's team, Shepard's team had soon reached the entrance to Citadel Control.

"Alright, we made it. Better call on Garrus to check if he has reached C-Sec Headquarters." Shepard said to the rest of his team.

He activated his com, but only the sound of static filled his ear when he tried to connect with Garrus or the Normandy. Shutting off the com link, he looked over at the team who already knew something was wrong.

"Let me guess…Someone is jamming our com links?" Tali said in an annoyed tone.

Shepard nodded and then suddenly a faint clanging sound echoed out from the darkness. Everyone slowly looked around, guns rising up in case of an attack.

"We're not alone…" Thane muttered in a grave voice as he looked closely into the shadows.

"I was already guessing that." Shepard replied back, as a faint growl came from behind him along pair of yellow eyes that stared down at him.

… **..**

Hidden in deep inside the ward, two figures stood in the bright light of the dozens of computer screens, showing many different parts of the Ward. The one was a volus in red and white pressure suit, while the other was a male quarian in black and dark purple suit with a light green visor.

"Are you sure -sss- that this is -sss- a good idea?" Said the volus to the quarian as the watched Garrus's and Shepard's teams get attacked by the hordes of twisted undead.

"There is no turning back now. The experiment is nearing its end now Shepard has arrived. We can now see if these creatures are capable of killing the galaxy's finest." The quarian answered back calmly. "The necromorphs have proven useful to us so far. They are adaptable if basic in purpose."

"You think they -sss- can be controlled still -sss-?" Said the volus in a nervous tone.

"Yes! My device has worked perfect on them, even the largest of them will bend to our will. When that ship arrived my devices quickly noticed the signal on board. The source of whatever creates and guides them. We'll soon retrieve it within a few more hours and use it to prefect it. . "

"What about-sss- the human from the -sss- ship and the -sss- Cerberus troopers?"

"He is just one scared human. Sooner or later they will find and kill him. The Cerberus troopers will be taken care of as well. For now…Shepard and the others will be dealt with first." The Quarian said in an annoyed tone as his assistant seemed doubtful.

"Very well. -sss- Then I guess I'll -sss- leave everything -sss- to you, Ronza. Don't forget –sss- you were meant to weaponize these –sss- things. The Shadow Broker will pay a fortune for this –sss- and no doubt pay off all your debt owed for your exerpiments." The volus said, before hobbling away into the next room filled with lab samples

"Yes…leave it to me…" Ronza muttered to himself as he stared at an image of Tali'Zorah on one of the screens, before reaching out to it as if trying to touch her.

… **..**

Isaac panted as he hurried across the open plaza, trying his best to find some cover. A bone chilling screech filled the air and the flapping of large wings echoed throughout the room. Isaac quickly slid for cover behind a pillar and pressed his back against it, trying to catch his breath. Carefully he looked around, mainly looking up to see if the strange nercomorph was still nearby. Things just seemed to be getting worse for him, he was running low on powercells for the plasmacutter and with these new nercomorphs he was starting to get overwhelm him. Carefully he took an out of cover before the screech echoed out again. Then a large, dark formed appeared in the air and then dived at him, driving a terrified scream from him as it snatched him into the air.

Author's note: The pace of the chapter reposts will keep going over the next few days along with the first NEW chapter of the series. Please post your comments and reactions so I can better improve any story aspects, established lore in either series or point out a problem with a matter.


	4. Chapter 3: Separation

**Chapter Three: Separation**

Shepard slowly turned his head around to see what was behind him and his eye widen in shock at the monstrosity that raised its bladed arm to strike down at him. Quickly he rolled forward as the blade crashed down on where he had stood, leaving a large dent in the metal floor. Tali reached down to quickly pull Shepard up and then everyone aimed they lights and guns at the creature.

Its torso, legs and head resembled that of a human, only gruesomely twisted. The flesh was torn and rotten looking with bones and what looked like another pair of arms growing around its ripped out stomach. The face was bent and turned, along with its jaw nearly falling off from the sharp teeth that could just barely fit its mouth. The lights seemed to blind monster for a moment, making it back away a bit howling, trying to cover its face with its arms to little avail.

"What the fucking hell is that!" Jack yelled out in disgust and surprise as the creature stumbled around blinded.

The creature then suddenly stopped moving, as if it could hear something in the air. Everyone held their breath, wondering what was going on with this monster. Then with screech it charged at them, bladed arms slashing wildly in the air as it closed in on them.

"FIRE!" Shepard yelled out as he took aim with his assault rifle and started shooting.

The creature stumbled back as his shots hit it right in the chest, but it just kept moving forward in a slower pace. Tali and Jack both fired their Geth shotguns at it, blasting off an arm and a leg. Falling over, the creature used it's only arm and leg to crawl at them, still refusing to die. Thane then used a strong biotic wrap on it, making its already rotting arm fall off. Crying out pained and angry moans, the creature stopping moving and laid still on the ground.

"Is…is it dead?" Tali asked in a worried tone.

Slowly, Shepard walked up to the monster's corpse and then gave it a strong kick to the side. Then without warning the body seemed to spring to life and tried to lunge up at his face. Mordin quickly fired an incineration at the monster, setting it on fire and give Shepard a chance to get away from it. It screeched and shook as it burned, until it dropped dead, nothing more than a burnt corpse. Shepard gave a thankful nod to Mordin, while everyone gathered around the dead creature, giving concerned looks at each other.

"Mordin…Do you have any idea what this thing is?" Shepard asked the salerian doctor with a serious voice.

"No…At least not right now…" Mordin answered back, before activating his omni-tool and started taking scans of the creature.

Everyone waited silently as Mordin continued to do his scans, mainly looking out at the darkness, worried that there was more waiting to attack them.

"Done, but afraid you may not like results…" He said as he looked up from reading his omni-tool.

"Just tell us anyway…whatever this thing is it's the best lead we got to figuring out what has happen here." Shepard replied back, although he already had his own ideas of what this thing really was.

"Very well…Scan showed that creature is in fact human. Many parts of DNA have been great modified, which also explains the…changes that the body has gone through. Also body has been dead for at least six days, which may explain for decay, but may just be side effect of genetic mutation." He said quickly before taking a deep breath.

"So you're saying someone or something is going around and mutating people?" Shepard questioned Mordin.

"Possible. Unsure of transmission vector. Could be airborne yet no current symptoms. Physical contact seems to be obvious form of infection yet creatures too aggressive. Reanimation and mutation after death likely." Mordin answered back.

Shepard nodded in agreement as the scientist listed his current theories. "You said this body was dead for six days, yet the lock down was only a four days ago."

"This creature may have been from the ship that had docked here and then gotten onto the Citadel. That means there is an outside source behind these mutants or this could be a body from a morgue here that was 'reanimated' by the virus."

Shepard looked down at the dead mutated body, knowing that this was starting to show as a much larger threat. He was about to question Mordin more, but an echoing howl filled the air, making everyone look around for the source of it.

"Everyone get inside the building…NOW!" Shepard ordered, before quickly running forward toward the Citadel Control Center. Already twisted and hulking forms stumbled out of the shadows as animal like howls and garbled yells filled the air. Everyone fired blindly out at the darkness as they ran inside the build, making pained cries and roars fill the air from the undead horde. Tali was already at the door terminal, quickly setting the door to lock down to cause it to slam shut just as the mutilated forms slammed against it.

Suddenly, the door shook and started to slowly begin to open. A pairs of bone claws had been able to find a grip on the thin gap of the door and the creatures were now trying to pull it open.

"Get the door wielded up now!" Shepard said as he pulled out his grenade launcher and fired a grenade into the crowd of monsters through the gap. Soon an explosion followed and body parts flew through the door which closed shut again. Tali quickly took out a small, but powerful laser tool and quickly melted the metal doors together, just as more of the monsters started bashing against the door again. After a few moments of the creatures howling in anger, before their voices seemed to fade away, showing the creatures had moved on for now.

"Seems like things are already out of hand here…" Thane said as he put away his rifle and looked over at the rest of the group, who were gathering up already.

"Agreed. If this virus does what we believe, then there are too many for us to handle. No chance of eliminating completely unless entire ward is fully purged." Mordin said with a grim look on his face.

"I don't see any problem in killing them all ourselves, they don't last long against biotics." Jack commented with an amused chuckle.

"That's enough now!" Shepard ordered in a loud tone. "First off Mordin is right...we don't stand a chance of clearing out the ward by ourselves. But we still need to make sure there are any survivors left, before we do anything rash. Even if these things had the chance to attack first, I doubt everyone would have been overwhelmed so easily. Security measures are active to a degree and the Ward did have a day before these creatures bypassed containment.

Tali walked up to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, wanting him to calm down. "Let's at least try and find out more of this ship at least. If they came from it perhaps the solution is on it."

She stepped past him and walked over to one of the empty terminals, activating her omni-tool to skillfully hack into it.

"Strange…the data I'm getting seems corrupted…Someone must have hacked into Citadel Control and copied all the files before deleting and meddling the original data."

"Is there any chance of saving any data or at least any info about this hacker?" Shepard asked Tali as he stepped up to look at the lines of data across the terminal screen.

"There are a few bits left, but still…whoever did this knew what they were doing." She replied back as she worked quickly with her omni-tool.

"There, it's not much but I was at least able to get the ship's name and time of appearance." She then activated a projector on the omni-tool, bring up a large projection of the mining ship. "Overall it matches with our report yet Control had done more in-depth scans such into the ship registry and point of arrival near the Citadel. It seems to have some…strange engines from what the readings say. None of it related to our FTL drives or to the relays. If anything this ship is capable of making jumps where ever it wishes!" 

"So you're saying this ship could have come from somewhere far off? Beyond the galaxy somehow?" Shepard questioned.

Mordin shook his head as he studied the data on the screen. "Unless humanity sent colony ships into uncharted space. Unlikely. Technology is varied in areas, being more advanced in some yet lacking in others. Besides…age is far off from the ship record" He'd point out the last star date the ship had recorded being 2508.

"2508?! That's about 400 years from now." Tali remarked in complete surprise.

"Remember older theories on wrap travel. Rather not say anything without further investigation. Need to physically examine ship engine and internal design to have a complete theory. Best not to jump to conclusions." The salarin muttered, seeming deep in thought over all this new information.

"I was able to recover a video of the initial attacks once the ship was opened." Tali typing in a new command onto the omni-tool, she brought up video footage of the first attack on the security team that was sent to check on the ship, leading to the monsters attacking them and getting onto the Citadel. More footage showed blast doors as seemingly hundreds of the rotting creatures flowed out of the ship. Auto-defenses kicked in as turrets opened up along the ceiling to open fire, the direct hits doing little damage to the creatures although some were dropping from the fire power. C-Sec security was forming up behind the defenses as the turrets were being destroyed by lunging creatures or razor barbs flung by baby like creatures with tendrils. While the blast doors held the creatures started to focus on vents as they proved to be quite agile and flexible as they shoved themselves into the ducts.

"The vents. The Keepers use them all the time yet are too hazardous for normal travel. No doubt this explains how the infestation spread" Mordin commented as the video showed the security teams glancing around at the ceiling before the creatures dropped down into the room, surprising a few of the officers as they didn't even get a shot off as they were pounced on and cut apart. Again body shots were useless yet directed shots to the limbs along with mix of tech tools and biotics started to turn the tide. Yet a half a dozen security could only hold back so much until they got overwhelmed.

Every new line of defense did hold out longer as vents were sealed and new tactics used. Yet when C-Sec seemed to have a stable defense on the second day, yet suddenly systems started shutting down. Turrets stopped working, doors opened and in followed the held back horde.

"Any idea how the security systems were shut off, there is no way someone in C-Sec would do such a thing."

"Well…The Citadel computer systems are powerful." Tali said in a thoughtful tone. "Keepers can easily access it, but they don't have any reason to do such a thing. A hacker could also get into the system as well, however that's tricky since it would take a lot of technical skill and tools to even try at all."

Shaking her head, she gave a sigh and said. "It doesn't make sense…If someone is behind all of this that means that could be watching us right now and could even use the defense system against us."

Everyone seemed to tense up at the thought, worried that turrets would just pop out of the ceiling to fire at them. Although nothing had happened so far, but now that meant they would have to be more on guard now.

"However in the last video I found, it shows someone quite interesting leaving the Ishimura." The other videos quickly disappeared and were replaced by a large screen of the ship airlock from the first video. Strangely the bodies of the dead C-Sec officers were gone, the only hints of them being there were their dropped weapons and blood stains. However a shadowed formed walked slowly out of the darkness of the ship entrance and into the light of the air lock. He seemed to be dressed in strange maintenance suit with a blue glowing visor and was carrying what looked like an energy tool of some kind that he must be using as a weapon. He quickly looked at the discarded pistols and even picked up one up, which he strapped onto his belt before hurrying off view and onto the Citadel Ward.

"So it seems that there are still survivors on that ship too." Shepard said as Tali closed the video and turned off her omni-tool.

"Well our best chance of find more about these things is to find that survivor or getting onto the ship to look at the data files on it." Shepard said to everyone who nodded back in agreement.

"Our next goal is to try and find that survivor and get onto that ship to find the data we need. We also need to find a way to contact Garrus, since the coms are still being jammed, most likely from this hacker. Once we have the information we need, we will meet up with Garrus and take the survivors back to the Normandy for evac and to gather more forces to clear out the ward. Now let's find to the main docking area, maybe that survivor is still around there."

Quickly he led everyone down one of the corridors to find a way out of Citadel Control, however Tali stopped for a moment to look at a security camera that seemed to follow their movement. Giving a long look at it, she tapped a few controls on her omni-tool and quickly hacked the camera to shut it down, making it spark a few times before shutting down. Giving a small chuckle at her work, she ran after the others, hoping that would anger the hacker a bit for her disruption.

… **..**

Off in a hidden part of Citadel, Ronza laughed a bit as he watched Tali shut down the camera that had seen their entire conversation, leaving onto a screen of static along the many camera videos. "Ah Tali'Zorah…Still the same as always…" He said to himself as he pressed a few buttons to have a new video screen take its place.

The video screen showed Garrus and his team continuing to fight the waves of Necromorphers, although they were slowly being forced to retreat from the store to find a better defense position.

"Impressive…" Ronza said as he watched them fight on still, but then noticed Eland the volus enter the room and stand beside him to look at the computer screen to watch the fight.

"Interesting -sss- they have lasted much longer than the -sss- others." He commented as he looked up at Ronza.

"Yes, they are the final test for the necromorphers. The heroic team of Commander Shepard and an entire squad of Cerberus agents, the best the universe has to offer. Once they are eliminated then nothing will be able to stop our plans."

Erlan gave a small chuckle and nod of agreement. "Yes! -sss- The Shadow Broker is –sss- impressed with the results. –sss- Still he wishes you to finish these tests. –sss- and finish the control device."

Ronza gave a short annoyed glance at him, but nodded before looking back at the screens.

"Of course...Without your connections with him I wouldn't be here." He said in a plain tone before he moved away from the large computer to move to the main part of the lab. "Now...I have much work to do. Keep an eye on our subjects and make preparations for our arrival to the Ishimura. After all the artifact on it is key to finishing our work."

The volus nodded to him as he watched him disappear into the main lab and then looked back at the screen, wanting to see if Garrus's team would survive in the end.

… **..**

"Don't stop firing! Hold them off just a bit longer!" Garrus yelled out to his team before shooting a concussion grenade out at a charging monster, hitting it right in the chest and exploding which caused all of its limbs to fly off.

The constant fighting had forced them to leave the shop, since they had nearly been cornered in there by the endless hordes of monsters. Now they had backed toward the other side of market plaza to try and escape through one of the elevators that could lead them down to C-Sec Headquarters. Legion was busy hacking the elevator lock while everyone else was busy keeping the rotting creatures from all directions. All of the creatures seemed to be twisted undead versions of humans, asari and salarians, which he could only faintly recognize from closely looking at their distorted faces.

Looking over at his team, Garrus could see that they were getting tired out from the overwhelming force. Their shields so far have proved ineffective towards bone blades and claws that grew out from the numerous arms or appendages that the creatures had, since their attacks were more physical toward them. Their regeneration mods in their suits were keeping them alive at least, but he doubted they would last much longer now.

Grunt suddenly gave an angry roar when some small form jumped at him and grabbed onto his chest. It looked like a baby with short barbed tentacles splitting out of its back, which it used to stab at the krogan's face.

"Rotting piece of trash!" Grunt said to it as he grabbed the attacking tentacles, stopping it's attended attack when he pulled them back along with the shirking creature.

Throwing it to the ground he stomped it with his foot, crushing it easily into a gory paste before he aimed his shotgun up to fire another attack monster.

"We can't keep this up!" Jacob called out as he flung one creature into the air with his biotics, giving Miranda a chance to hit it with a warp which caused it to fall apart from the attack.

"Elevator almost here. Just a bit longer." Legion said quickly as he continued to type rapidly on his omni-tool.

Suddenly the elevator doors opened and quickly everyone started to back up to get in it to escape.

"Hit them with everything you got! Make sure they don't get close enough to block the doors!" Garrus ordered before firing his shredder rounds over a group of monsters, ripping them apart with ease. Samara, Jacob and Miranda all unleashed their biotics on crowd of creatures, creating a large shockwave that tore through or knocked them back. Taking their chance, everyone hurried into the elevator just as Legion hit the button for the lower level which made the doors slam shut.

"Well…that was too close…" Garrus said between tired pants as he looked over at tired team, who were all busy catching their breath. "So…even the idea of husks being the problem here was wrong…seems like we have something even worse."

"Yes…I have never seen such creatures. You saw how they resembled asari and humans…it shows that there must be some virus or disease turning them into such horrid things…" Samara said in a low and even slightly mournful tone.

"Well that means more questions now." Jacob quickly replied back. "Who made this virus and why…" Shaking his head and giving a sigh, he then said. "You also saw how there were…babies…that had also been changed as well. What sick, fucked up mind makes something that does such a thing!"

He slammed his fist against the wall of the elevator in anger, while Miranda placed a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down.

"We will find out about this, but we can't let ourselves get distracted by our anger. Save it for the people behind this Jacob." She said to him in firm and understanding tone.

Giving a deep sigh, Jacob gave a small nod to her and seemed to relax a bit, but he still had a tense look in his face.

After a long silent moment, the elevator soon stopped and the doors slid open, showing the entrance C-Sec Headquarters.

"Alright…let's be careful here. Don't want the officers to shot at us by accident. "Garrus told the team before slowly walking off the elevator to head for the doors where a small com station was set. Everyone else followed, but kept their distance to let him check if there was anyone even still inside the base. Reaching the com station, Garrus typed in his old C-Sec officer code and soon a small buzzing sound came and then a voice.

"Who are you, some more survivors or the security team we sent out?" Spoke out a gruff voice out of com speaker.

"How about rescue team. We had a feeling that people would bunker down here, so we came here first thing." Garrus replied back in a thankful tone, glad to at least know people had survived.

"Oh thank god…we thought no one would come and get us!" The voice of the security officer exclaimed happily. "Survivors and left over officers have been retreating here for the past day. We even got attacked by those…things…Had to seal off certain sections to stop them, lost a few good men. "

The voice became silent and gave a low sigh, before Garrus then spoke up again. "They did well protecting everyone still. We will be sure that they don't get forgotten for their duty."

"Good…that would be nice…Anyway I'm unlocking the doors, just hurry in before they come back." The officer said.

The heavy doors beeped and the lights above them turned green before the quickly slid open, showing an older human C-Sec officer dressed in riot armor. Already Garrus and the rest of his team quickly hurried pass the armored doors, which the officer quickly sealed once they got in.

The inside of the C-Sec HQ seemed more like a full hospital now. Cots and medical equipment was set up all over the place, with injured civilians and security officers lying around bandaged up or being consoled by someone to help with shock. The C-Sec officers that stood around guarding or moving on patrol were mainly dressed in riot armor, unlike normal officer suits or armor.

"So how come your not using the standard armor? Riot armor does not have the same shield power as it." Garrus asked in a slightly curious tone.

"Shields are no good with these creatures, even the ones that shoot those bards or explosives, since they just tear right through it. However riot armor is just built tougher, better for facing physical attacks then taking a gun shot." The officer quickly said with a small chuckle. "Was my idea really and so far it has helped save a few from losing a limb to those things."

Garrus nodded in agreement, understanding the advantage they gave for the officers. "So how many people do you have here?" Garrus asked the officer after looking back at the injured survivors.

"At least fifty civilians and twenty five officers that are uninjured and about at least thirdly injured on both sides, so that's about one hundred. A few people may not make it…some of them are just too injured to move and have lost limbs to those things.

"Anyway, how big is the rescue team and ship? I mean…this can't be the entire team right?" He said in questioning manner as he looking over at everyone else.

"Well…had our groups split up to find survivors and to learn how all of this happened, but I'm sure you could fill us in on what exactly happen." Garrus said, trying to avoid the question about the Normandy, which he knew could not carry all of these people.

The officer quickly had a more serious look at the question. "What happened was all those things came off that large mining ship that drifted here. As soon as a scouting team was sent to see if anyone was on board those creatures charged out and killed them all. We already had bulkheads lower when the team status went down and we soon were picking them off with drones and turrets to try and clear a way for another team to seal the ship."

He gave a shaken sigh and paused for a moment, giving downcast look now before he continued. "We did have a few get through the vents, but even got those sealed…however…after a few hours of lockdown we had a complete system crash and all security doors were unlocked, making it easy for them to swarm in. We barely got enough control to get an evacuation, but even then many people were dead. Still a good amount of people escaped to ships or to the other wards before the ward wide lockdown happened and sealed us in. After that we have been holed up here and sending teams out to find people or to get a way out of here, but that has been going bad as well…"

The whole team was silent as they listened to the story, nodding a bit and thinking over the facts of what had happened and what they can do now.

"Well…to tell you the truth…we don't exactly have a rescue plan right now. We were pretty much sent to see what the situation was and then call command after that. However our com signals are being jammed by something, so we can't call for help…"

The officer sighed deeply and had a depressed look on his face for a moment, but quickly looked up with a more serious look.

"Well then…I think I do know the problem for the jammer at least! The thing is our search parties have set up temporary cameras when they went out and recently we have found out about these people…"

Guided everyone over to a large terminal, he pressed a few buttons to bring up a few video screens up. Soon recordings of a few groups of soldiers dressed in black and white armor moving around different parts of the ward in an orderly manner. Any of the creatures that got in their way were quickly shot down, their shots many focused on the limbs to take down the monsters with greater ease. They would then gather up samples from the dead creatures, however as one soldier kneeled down it was easy to see the Cerberus symbol on the shoulder of his armor.

"I should have known…It would have been only a matter of time before Cerberus would know about this." Miranda said in a more serious tone when they paused the video to that certain scene.

"What…you mean is she really serious…" The officer started before Garrus suddenly spoke up.

"Yes…but hopefully it has nothing to do with these monsters. Cerberus maybe pro human, but even they know better than to just publicly test a bioweapon here."

Both Jacob and Miranda nodded in agreement, since both knew fully well about the workings of the dangerous organization.

"By the looks of it they are here to just collect sample…Research most likely. Still if they many even the slightest mistake they could get infected or spread this thing." Jacob said in a stern tone.

"Then we will be sure to put a stop to that…All we need to do is to find them." Garrus answered back in agreement.

"Then you best look in the northern district…" The Officer said quickly with a short nod. "That area so far has been the more devoid of those things and most likely has that jammer set up. Your best bet of getting there are through the service catwalks that the keepers use."

Garrus gave a nod to him and looked back at his team. "Well sounds like a plan. Let's shut down that jammer and then organize a rescue for everyone here before meeting up with Shepard's team." Looking back at the officer, he then said. "Keep up the defenses here for just a bit longer. We will call you once the coms work again."

"Alright…I'll be sure to keep everyone around here to hold things together. Anyway, just head up to the top level of HQ and take the service exit out. We will lock it once you're out."

"Then let's not waste any more time then." Garrus said, before turning around to head for the stairs up, the rest of the team close behind him. Soon they found the service exit and quickly opened it, looking out to make sure nothing was waiting for them outside. Quickly they drew their guns and moved out onto the large service catwalks, the door behind them closing and locking once they were all out as they went on to their newest goal.

… **..**

Isaac yelled out as he grasped the grabbing claws around his neck, trying his best not to look down at the ground below him. The new necromorph creature shrieked in his face, mandibles snapping at his face, which forced him to quickly lean his head back to avoid them. Suddenly, he lashed out with a head butt right to its forehead, making it cry out as it seemingly lost balance in the pace of its wing beats. Already they were dropping down to the ground, but now the creature's hold around his neck and weakened, allowing him to pull one claw hand away from his neck to breath and to make it easier for him to lash out with a strike with his plasma cutter.

The hard metal of the tool bashed the right side of the flying necromorpher's distorted face, making mandible on that side break off and hand by a small string of muscle. It gave another shriek at him, but he soon had his plasma cutter right up to its neck before firing to silence it. Head falling off, the body started shaking and moving around on its own still, making its wings and arms shaking around wildly. Isaac gave a grunt as it hit him in the chest which caused him to fall back and down to the ground from the force of the blow. Lucky, the wildly flapping wings had slowed the fall and had let him fall closer to the ground to not cause any major harm.

Panting heavily, Isaac stood up and walked over to the fallen corpse of the necromorpher and aimed the cutter up at its wings to shoot them both off with a well-placed shot. It suddenly reached up in pain and gave a low gurgling sound, since it lacked a head now, before fall back dead now.

Already Isaac was on the move once more now, certain that docking center must be close now since the signs he saw along the walls. He just hoped he could get the Ishimura free before this nightmare spread out any more.

… **...**

Eland watched the whole fight between the survivor from the ship and the transformed turian, typing down a few notes into his omni-tool to give to Ronza later.

"I shame -sss- that he did not die." The volus muttered to himself, knowing now that this engineer was becoming more of a threat now.

Not only had he seemed to deal with the normal versions of the creatures, but he was even figuring out how to combat even the newly created ones. If he found a way to even free the Ishimura it would set back their plans for them all and anger Ronza. After all this 'Maker' he mentioned Perhaps they would have to use their mercenary friend to eliminate him then.

Giving a sigh, he looked at the other screens to see the progress of Shepard's group and the Cerberus team. So far Cerberus had been dealing well so far, a bit too well as if they already knew how to deal with such creatures. Still, he knew that Ronza tip had been useful to the Illusive Man, but they should have expected that he would have planned out such a planned out group.

Moving away from the control room and into the large lab nearby where Ronza did his many experiments and studies. He was impressed at how well skilled quarian was in bio-science, something that wasn't expect of the cybernetic focused race. From what he knew, Ronza was focused on the study of his race's weak immune system and genetics, trying to find the flaw to it. However he didn't care much on the quarian's personal studies. After all, they had originally set this lab for illegal organ cloning and drug production, all part of regaining the Shadow Broker's market on the Citadel. Yet with the necromorphs arrival it offered a new opportunity which Ronza, much to Eland's surprise offered to experiment with.

Still, he questioned the quarian's interest on this artifact, this so called 'Maker' trace logs taken from the Ishimura. Ronza believed it to be the source of the necromorphs and that studying it would lead to new advances. Yet it seemed too risky, having to enter the mining ship and avoid whatever dangers possibly lurking inside. Also the way the quarrian looked lately…it had him worried.

Leaving the lab now, he walked into the next room were the subsonic generator was set up, giving a low high pitched hum to show it was powered. Moving up to a control screen, he tapped a few buttons and brought up a map the ward area, showing the spread of the subsonic spread over the necromorpher infected areas. Quickly he changed a few settings, making the machine buzz louder as he increased the power of it to make the more larger creatures head toward Shepard and Cerberus's team locations.

"Hehehe… -sss- It will all be -sss- over soon…" He said to himself as he hurried back to the control room to watch the chaos begin.

However, soon after, Ronza stepped out of the shadows and moved toward the controls, looking at how his partner had set them.

"I will have her at least…she will see how my work will enlighten our kind…" He muttered to himself as he worked on the controls, setting up a much more complex plan for the necromorphs.

…

Shepard and his team hurried down the hallway, all of them looking around as the howls and crawling sounds of the monsters filled the air. It seemed as if all the creatures were gathering together just to hunt them down.

"We can't out run them. Must find defensive position and take stand." Mordin said quickly as he looked over his shoulder to see faint glowing eyes in the darkness behind them.

"Then let's hope the directions were right to leading to a transit station then." Shepard answered back before the made a sharp turn down the corridor and into the station lobby.

Before he even gave an order, everyone was already moved out to set up a defensive area, moving chairs and benches around to form a barricade or to seal up any nearby doors and air ducts. While, he moved to check the far side of the station, he saw one door open up suddenly and a group of eight figures dressed in black combat armor with hazmat helmets. They soon sealed the door behind them, but when one turned to look at him, he quickly saw the emblem of Cerberus on the chest and shoulder of their armor.

"Sir, its Shepard!" He called out before turning to one member of the group, who was outfitted in a more advanced combat suit.

The leader of the Cerberus group looked at Shepard, his face completely hidden behind the helm and facemask to hide away any expressions from Shepard, who already had one hand trailing back for his heavy pistol.

"Well Shepard…surprising to see you here so soon after leaving Cerberus." The masked Cerberus Agent said to him. "The Illusive Man was very disappointed with your choice with the Collector Base, but this new situation may just prove to be just as useful."

Shepard looked back a bit to see his team noticing the Cerberus Agents as well and were already hurrying to back him up, evening the odds now.

"Is Cerberus behind this somehow then? Some twisted test of some new bioweapon and to make it seem like some terrorist attack." Shepard said to keep the Agent talking.

"We may go to extremes at times Commander, but even this is too far to us as well." The Agent answered back. "We just learned about this…incident and some information about the mining ship through our contacts. Right now we are just here to gather and record…along with removing any annoyances as well…"

Soon he and the rest of the Cerberus soldiers raised they assault rifles up to aim them right at him, setting up armor-piercing mods to their guns.

"I'm not alone in this…" Shepard said back in a more stern tone as he drew his heavy pistol, along with everyone else in his team drawing their own weapons in retaliation. "Besides, we don't have time for this! Those things could break into here any second now."

"Then we will make this quick then…open fire!" The Agent called out, but before anyone could even fire their weapons, the ground started to shake and loud smashing sounds could be hear coming from the sealed doors and vents all around the station.

"Now that sounds like something big…" Thane muttered, as everyone started looking around, forgetting about the fight they were about to have.

Then suddenly, the door that the Cerberus team had sealed just got ripped apart by some large creature that was hidden partly from the darkness of the doorway. It was at least twice the size of a human and had large, thick arms that could easily tear through anything in its path.

With a loud cry, he lunged out of the torn doorway to grab the nearest Cerberus soldier, who cried out in pain as the massive hand cracked bones even through his combat armor.

"Kill it! Kill it now!" He howled out to the others before the creature slammed him into the ground to silence him before grasping his limp body to rip it in two.

"Shoot it!" The Cerberus Agent yelled out, who already was firing off his assault rifle right at the creature's chest.

The rest of the Cerberus team fired at it as well, but most of their shots just hit the bone plating that covered most of the creature's front. It just roared out in anger from their attacks and some just threw the broke body of the soldier at them, making them break formation to avoid the two gory pieces. Then it charged out at the scattered soldiers, punching and swinging at them as they tried to fight it off.

Already Shepard was backing away and turned to look back at his team, but soon saw the other doors that they had also sealed bend and twist as more of these large creatures forced their way into the large station lobby.

"There are too many!" Tali yelled out as she fired her shotgun out at one, making it stagger back from the force of the shots, but hardly hurting it.

Everything was just going to hell now as at least four of the creatures finally fitted themselves through the torn doorways to surround Shepard's retreating team and the Cerberus soldiers.

"Everyone, stay with someone and split up! They can't focus on all of us!" Shepard ordered out, before looking back at the Cerberus team. Another one of the hulking creatures had joined up in the fight, one soldier screaming as he was draw in a crushing bear hug before having his head chewed off by the gapping maw of the brutish creature.

Still, that left the other three creatures left to chase down Shepard and the rest. Already Thane and Mordin with moving for one of the torn exits, each of them firing out at any of the nearing monsters with sniper rounds or incinerate.

Jack was hurrying toward Tali, who was busy keeping one creature back by using a drone to distract it, while she fired at it still with her shotgun. Shepard was already running to her as well, shooting off a concussion shot off at the last monster that was following after him, knocking it over even despite its large size.

As he neared Tali, he opened fire with his assault rifle to the back of the creature, which howled out suddenly from his attack. Looking more closely, he could see that its back was unarmored unlike the front. Taking this chance to injury it more, he quickly reloaded and shot at it more, aiming at the back of the knees until the suddenly gave way and collapsed.

"Run for it Tali!" He yelled out to her as she looked over the fallen creature and right at him. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then Jack reached her to pull her away for the nearest exit. Shepard sprinted after them, but as he started to near them the ground shook again, forceful each to make the other creatures stumble as well.

"What the fuck is it now!" Jack yelled out as she and Tali got their balance back and looked around as if expecting something to just burst in to attack them.

However, Shepard could see something moving around in the large vents around them both and already he was moving toward them, hoping to be fast enough to push them away.

Still, he was too late as the large tentacle of twisted flesh forced out of the vent to lash out at Jack and Tali, knocking them both aside and away from each other. The tendril then moved to Shepard hitting him aside before he could even attack and then wrapping around Tali.

Shepard was already getting up, dazed by the blow, but not injured too badly. However, he gave a shocked look as he saw Tali struggling in the grasp of the tentacle, which was pulling her into the vent.

"No, Tali!" He yelled out as he shook off the daze from the blow and hurried to grab her reaching arms.

Grabbing hold of her, he pulled back against the tendril, using every bit of enhanced strength he had to try and free her. But it was just too strong as it was now slowly pulling Tali more to the vent and having her slip more some his grasp.

"Shepard!" Tali cried out to him, her faint glowing eyes have a pleading look in them as she looked right at him.

"Tali! I won't lose you, just hold on!" He said to her as he kept pulling back, but then suddenly felt her hands slip away from his.

For one moment everything seemed to slow as he watched Tali get completely pulled back into the vent, the look of despair just painful to see as she disappeared into the darkness of the duct tunnels.

"TALI!" Shepard yelled out in shock and anger, disbelieving from the many missions he had gone through with her that he would lose her like this.

Looking over to Jack, he saw Mordin and Thane pulled her away to safety for the exit, both of them looking back with saddened faces at their loss. Shepard gave a pained look to them and then looked back to the vent, hearing faint echoes from it still.

"The plan is the same…We regroup at the Ishimura docking bay…" He said to them in a serious tone. "Find Garrus if you can…I'll be back with Tali..."

Before any of them could speak back or even try to stop him, he already climbed into the large air duct and hurried forward, the image of Tali's pleading look still fresh in his mind.

"I won't lose anyone….I won't lose her…" He said to himself as he just followed the dented trail that the tentacle had left behind.

As he made a turn around the long duct tunnel, he felt the metal under him groan as it started to bend more from him standing on it. The duct floor then gave way, making Shepard drop down into the darkness before and to an uncertain fate.

… **..**

Tali just yelled and struggled against the gripping tentacle, trying to free herself from it as she was pulled deeper into the maze of air ducts. She could not aim her shotgun well enough to hit it, since each movement it made had her arm shake, almost making her drop her weapon.

"Shepard…Someone…" She said weakly, her body sore from the tight hold of the tendril and her mind in complete despair.

Soon she was pulled into a large air circulation hub, moving across it for another air duct to who knows where. As she was half way across the room, a sudden sound of a sub-machine gun filled the air, along with the tentacle twitching and shaking as it was shot at. Its grip weakened and soon Tali was able to slip out from its hold to group down to the metal ground. Looking up, he watched the tendril retreat into the vent quickly, leaving the room in complete silence now.

Slowly, she stood up and looked back to see her savoir, hoping it was Shepard who had somehow followed after her. A figure stepped out of the shadows to stand in the faint light of the room, holding a well-designed and custom built sub-machine in hand. Tali have a faint gasp as she saw the dark black and purple environmental suit, then his masked face to fully see that her rescuer was a Quarian. But was more surprising was how see recognized the specially designed suit and faint outline of his face in the mask.

"R-Ronza! Is that you?" She asked in a low and surprised tone as she stepped forward a bit toward him.

The Quarian was silent for a long moment, but soon gave a small chuckle and nod to her as he looked at her.

"Yes…and it has been a long time Tali'Zorah. I'm surprised to find you here with…everything that is going on." He said in a calm and smooth voice.

Tali gave a faint nod to him, but seemed to stop moving toward him as she now stared back at him. "Why are you here though? The Admiralty Board said you disappeared on a mission they sent you on years ago."

Ronza seemed to tense up for a moment, but as quickly as it had appeared, he quickly relaxed once more. "There is more then you know behind that…but we can't talk now with such danger around us." He answered back to her. "I have a safe place for us to hide at, so at let us wait until we reach there before we discuss my reasons for being here…"

Before she could reply back, he was already moving down to a maintenance door which he opened with just one quick command on his omni-tool. As he disappeared into the tunnel, Tali stood there as she was uncertain to follow him or not. Still, she needed to be someplace safe to try and track down Shepard and the others, so she knew she had no better choice left but to follow. Besides, she wondered why the top member of her own flotilla had disappeared from so long and the truth behind it as well.

So, she quickly followed after him, walking into the darkness of the open tunnel to find out the truth of her old closest friend.

Author's Note: Quite the long chapter, espcally with the rewrites and corrections. I do hope the new details are informative and add more to the overall scene. Again comments are very much wanted!


	5. Chapter 4: Deception

**Chapter Four: Deception**

The fall seemed to just go on and on for Shepard as he continued to drop into the abyss of darkness, arms swinging out to grab at some unseen handhold. His armored body bashed and hit against crossing ducts now, driving a pained yell from him before continuing to fall. As this all happened the constant thought of Tali kept going through his mind, seeing her get dragged away to face the horrors farther ahead. Thinking about her made his determination come back to him, making him focus once more now.

Soon, another slamming hit from a metal duct went across his chest, knocking the wind out of him again. However, this time his hands grasped at the smooth metal and found a hold onto it, keeping him and place now to stop him from falling.

"I won't lose her…not after all we faced before together…" He muttered to himself, before slowly pulling himself up onto the vent top. Standing on it, he kept his balance before he moved down to look for a maintenance vent hidden around somewhere, since the Keepers needed a way to go about even here to make repairs. Soon, he found one farther ahead built into the wall, leading him once more into the air control tunnels that littered around the entire Citadel.

He had no idea of where Tali was in this maze of tunnels and ducts, but he knew he would find her somehow, even if all the odds were against him. Facing the impossible was almost daily route to him by now, but this time it had become personal.

… **..**

 **Three Years Ago – The Migrant Fleet**

Today was quite a special one as a sudden meeting had been called on by the Admiralty Board, involving sad news of one of their leading member's and the fate of sole child of the family. The public meeting was held as usual in the largest of the fleet's ship, sit in the large council chamber where each Board member stood while the public watched on the opposite end. In the between the two sections was a walkway leading to a single stand where a speaker could approach and speak directly to the Board.

The leading moderator of the Board stepped up, Admiral Shala'Raan who many saw as a wise and logical, balancing the conflicted personalities of the other admirals. All but one of the leading members were in their place, leading to the watching crowd mutter about. Raising her hands, the crowd quickly silenced before the quarian woman spoke.

"People of the fleet. We have called on this meeting to report of a sad passing within our leadership." She paused as he words sunk in, before continuing. "Admiral Kaldren vas Yenden has died along with his wife and closest members of his fleet. The incident involved a batarian raid on a human colony world they were visiting as part of medical research. The Alliance has thankful brought justice to those responsible yet it does not lessen our loss."

Again everyone was silent, almost in prayer. Kaldren was favored by many since he was an active member of the Board, focusing on medical improvements for their ships and personal suits.

"Kaldren's line is left to one now. His son Ronza." Shala'Raan would look to the side as the young male quarian walked towards the central stand, his gaze intense and his poise straight as he stood before the Admirals. "The late Admiral would have been proud of you Ronza. You are fitting of his legacy and that of your family line which is traced back to the time far before the loss of our homeworld.

All he did was nod back in acknowledgement, seeming to know the Admiral wasn't finished yet and was deep in thought as well.

"Top of your class in all subjects from mechanics, bio-science and even military service. None can boast of such accomplishments before even starting their Pilgrimage. That is why…we have decided to let that rite pass for you."

Gasps and muttering filled the air as the crowd as shocked. Never had a Pilgrimage been repealed for anyone, since the rite was a tradition and needed for the sustaining of the overall Fleet. At this point Ronza reacted as one hand clenched the pedestal of the stand.

"Why? Why do I get this special treatment while so many before me had to endure their Pilgrimage after such losses?" He questioned, his voice calm yet accusing towards the Board.

"Are you taking our decision as an insult?" Spoke up a male quarian, Admiral Han'Gerrel, a quite famous if hot headed military leader of the Board. "You're skills alone are a resource enough. There is no need to send you out and risk yourself while your vast talents can be put to use here with the Migrant Fleet."

"Is that so? Well I say that is a lie." Ronza remarked back coldly.

The Admirals looked shocked, unsure to such disrespect, yet the young quarian wasn't finished. "This is about keeping me under your watch. You know very well what my family has been working on. Generations of work towards a cure."

"There is nothing to 'cure'! Our kind is strong as ever and-"Han'Gerrel snapped back yet he was interrupted.

"Strong?! We've been drifting for over 300 years on his decaying fleet! Our lives are at the mercy of a simple breach to our suits, leaving us unable to properly fight the Geth or even find a new world to call home! The galaxy looks down on us…as thieves and creators of a galactic menace!"

With each remark the crowd yammered on, mixed of shock and muttering agreement hinted among them. The Admirals talked between each other, Han'Gerrel seeming ready to strangle Ronza while Shala listened calmly.

"Even if we reclaim our homeworld we won't even be able to enjoy its fresh air or the warmth of the sun. My generation…even the next will be denied such a pleasure. Our bodies are flawed, something which even our old government knew and were trying to mend."

"Such claims are not meant to be mentioned! You know very well such research even back then was considered forbidden!" Han'Gerrel shouted back.

Shala at this point spoke, her tone still calm yet having a more serious hint to it. "He is right Ronza. You know very well the dangers of genetic manipulation. It is the natural order in the end…and in the end we have survived despite it. If such research was flawed, such changes could lead to the death of our species. You know well what such science has done. Look at the Krogan's and you know the dangers of it!"

The room became quiet thinking of possibly facing the same fate as the Krogans or perhaps something even worse. Ronza was silent, head bowed for a long moment before looking back at the Admirals.

"You're right. It is dangerous to rely on such methods, yet in the end what choice do we have. Right now we are suffering a slow death and you all are willing to let it happen or to just one day throw us all in a suicidal war with the Geth, thinking that victory will fix all our problems." Shaking his head, he gave a small mocking chuckle. "I refuse that. My father entrusted his work to me and I plan to finish it. To give our people a gift they deserve. Freedom from fear and the chance of a real life."

With that he moved away from the stand as the crowd broke out, yelling questions towards him and the Admirals. Curses and blessings were given as the male quarian moved along, heading for the docking bays for his own ship.

"He should be arrested! If he is serious, his actions are that of treason!" Han'Gerrel whispered to Shala.

"You know the people would be outraged by such an act. If anything his words are true…our kind is reaching its limits. I doubt he will find his 'cure'. If the greatest minds before us couldn't with all their vast resources, what chance does he have?" She answered back, her voice somber as she watched Ronza leave the meeting chamber.

With some effort, he'd avoid the following crowd from the meeting chamber and now approaching his ship, a small medical vessel his father had entrusted to him. With his omni-tool out, he prepped it for launch, yet stopped when he noticed someone step out from behind him. At first he thought it was a Marine who was ordered to capture him…maybe even kill him as he moved for his concealed pistol, yet he recognized who it was.

"Tali'Zorah. I should have expected you'd come to say goodbye." A slow sigh escaped him, yet under his green tinted mask he smiled at her. "You can't change my mind. I'm leaving to do my Pilgrimage and I won't come back until I finish what my father started."

The young female quarian was silent, her gaze low as she was torn over what was going on. She always knew of Ronza's aspirations, having become close with him during their studies and childhood. "I know and I won't try to stop you. Just…do you think this is right? The Admirals made a good point…" Her gaze met his, conflicting emotions showing in her eyes. "Is it worth it just for a promise?"

He was silent, yet his steady look was answer enough for her. "You have to believe in me. What I'm doing is for the greater good for us all…and for you." One hand moved to touch her face, making him shift back shyly. "Just wait for me."

With that said, he moved away from her, hurrying into his ship and undocking from the vast capital ship. Tali watched him fly off, disappearing in a flash as he went into FTL, bowing her head as already she worried for him.

… **..**

Hidden away in the deepest parts of the Citadel, Tali carefully followed Ronza who guided her through the many different tunnels and vents, seemingly know his way around the endless maze. She was stilled worried about the rest of the team and Shepard, hoping they had escaped as well. Still, knowing Shepard, he was most likely searching for her this very moment. However, she trusted Ronza, just as much as Shepard yet already she felt something was different about him.

"Ronza…I thought you were dead." Tali asked him after a long moment of silence. "The Admiralty Board said you died. They said you were killed on Omega when you crossed with pirates over some matter."

Ronza gave a small chuckle hearing such news, seeming amused by it. "Sounds much like what they said about my father. I now question if they were somehow involved with his demise."

"No…The Board wouldn't do that. Despite all that was said that day, many people were worried about you, hoping you'd come back...believing the promise you made."

"I'll admit Tali, I've missed my place in the fleet yet I can never accept the views of the Admirals. Besides, in all those years I've hadn't found my answer yet. Always it has been evading me." He answered back calmly. "Always my research ended with a flaw or my work…tampered with. Yet in last week I've made a break through!"

Guiding Tali into the dimly lit hallway, the door closed behind them as they now walked into the lab. Quickly, she looked around to see all the different tables, laid out with testing equipment and tech for all sorts of different projects. What was more shocking where the large test tubes with the twisted creatures she and the team have been fighting.

"Ronza…what is all of this?" She asked him in a worried voice as she looked at him and backing away a bit, his eyes behind his visor having a serious look in them when he glanced back at her.

… **..**

Isaac slowed his run to take a moment to rest, panting heavily behind his visor as he looked around to make sure it was clear. Still he was completely lost in this massive space station, without a single clue of where the docking control was. Taking out a medkit off his belt, he quickly and carefully treated any wounds he got from his fight with that new flying necromorpher that he had barely escaped from.

His only option now it seemed was to find help from anyone still alive on the station, since someone here would know how to get the Ishimura free so he could take away it's monsters and so he could finish his mission in returning the Marker. He still had the sinking feeling that he was being watched, not by the monsters but someone else. From what he had seen of the necromorphs, they were moving together in larger groups and using more planned attacks, something they never truly done so far.

It was just becoming an added mystery since his arrival to this station, but hopefully he could set things right. Now more rested, he started to get moving again before suddenly hearing voices coming his direction. He could only understand a couple of words, but the voice seemed alien. Ducking behind a pillar, he waited for them to near to at least figure out who they were exactly.

… **..**

Mordin, Jack and Thane all slowed down in their run, having escaped the horde of monsters and the Cerberus Agents.

"Was it wise to let Shepard run off like that alone? It's reckless to go on alone with all those creatures about." Thane said to the others, while keeping a sharp look out around them.

"No time to stop him. Besides, unwilling to abandon Tali'Zorah. He would go to any risk to save us, but for her he give his life for." Mordin said in a serious tone.

"Guess so, besides Shepard can handle himself." Jack added in as well.

"True…but still you saw how those creatures just seemed to find us. Someone or something is guiding them. Unsure how such creatures can be controlled in such a way. Perhaps pheromones or sound…hmm…" Mordin said, following along with his thoughts on the creatures.

Thane however could hear a taint shuffling behind one of the pillars and glanced over to the others, his eyes looking over to it before giving a small nod.

Mordin and Jack nodded back, understanding what he meant before all drawing their weapons and aiming at the pillar. Quickly, Jack used her biotics to pull the figure out of cover, making him yell out in surprised before landing in front of them but quickly getting up on his feet. The man was dressed in some metal suit of some kind that looked like a space suit of some kind. It even had a helmet and visor that covered up his face was well. With the group surrounding him he was quick to get his weapon aimed up although to the others it looked like a bulky energy cutter of some kind.

"What the fuck, who the hell is this guy?" Jack spoke out loudly, aiming his shotgun up more at him.

"Well he's human…" Thane said, his rifle lowering a bit since he could tell that man wasn't a threat to them.

"Uncertain…suit not of any design I have seen before, ever of old human works." Mordin said in a curious manner as he studied him.

The man looked between all three of them, giving an uncertain look to Mordin and Thane, but focusing on Jack. "Look…just lower that gun please and tell your weird buddies here to calm down. I don't like how they are staring at me." Isaac suddenly said in a tense voice.

"Well…he can talk at least." Jack said with a small sneer as she looked to the others.

"Wait, if he does not have a translator then he could be from that mining ship." Thane said quickly.

"Yes…I do think I can have a solution to this…" Mordin added before activating his omni-tool to link up to their translators. After a few moments, he took a moment to clear his voice, before speaking again to Isaac. "Sorry about our misunderstanding. Thought you were one of those creatures or a spy of Cerberus."

Isaac seemed to relax a bit more now that he could understand the strange alien, who he could barely understand because of how fast he spoke. Taking a moment to press a button on the side of his helmet to rise his visor up and show his face, he gave a sigh before looking at them.

"My name is Isaac Clarke, engineer of The USG Kellion which was sent to repair the Ishimura. I guess I have a lot to explain here…about the necromorphs and what I need to do with the ship." Isaac said after a moment of silence, his voice quite serious to them.

"Necromorphs. Fitting name for such creatures…Tell me more Isaac, I'm sure we can figure out a solution to both of our problems here." Mordin said, a showing interesting in his voice as he already had his omni-tool out to start taking notes.

… **..**

Eland was moving away from the surveillance room to take a break, but stopped in the lab when he noticed Ronza with the female Quarian from the videos of Shepard's team.

"What is -sss- she doing here?" The Volus said in a surprised tone to the male Quarian. "I thought you-"

"I saved her and nothing more Eland!" Ronza snapped back angrily, silencing before he could say more. "She can be trusted…she understands my work and what it means for our people." Taking a breath, he calmed down before speaking again. "Leave us please. I expect the preparations for entering the Ishimura to be finished within the hour."

Eland, breathed loudly as he looked at them, but gave a small sigh and nodded before moving away, muttering to himself. "Foolish -sss- Quarian. Will ruin -sss- everything because of that girl…"

Returning to the control room, the Volus would see the human engineer from the mining ship speaking to the salarian doctor from Shepard's team, no doubt sharing all he knew about the ship he had been on along with the necromorphs.

"-sss- Perhaps this issue requires a professionals –sss- touch." Moving to communications, he'd quickly uplink with an old mercenary contact, someone he knew was perfect for a hit. "Mr. Zaeed? I hope you're still –sss- alive out there."

For a moment there was silence before the screen flared as the image of a gruff and scarred human showed up, giving an annoyed look towards the Volus.

"Well what a surprise Eland. Been quite a while since you called up. Just checking up for good times sake…or because I just happen to be stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse!" Obviously from his tone he sounded more angered and annoyed with his situation.

"Can't say my situation is –sss- any different. However I've had the luck of –sss- acquiring a ship. It's not locked down and –sss- fully equipped for a speedy escape. Think of a spot on board as –sss- payment."

"So selling flight tickets now. I'll admit the mess here is getting troublesome. Me and my crew have held out fine…although the club bar is dried up now." Pausing for a long while, he'd then speak up. "So deal is you get me and my men off station. So who's the unlucky bastard?"

"His name's Isaac Clarke, -sss- ship engineer. Let just say he's –sss- seen something he wasn't supposed to."

… **..**

Tali looked back to Ronza when the volus had left them, the worried look in her eyes still showing at she stared at him. "Explain yourself Ronza, what is your involvement with what's

Ronza seemed to relax and a faint chuckle came from him as he moved closer to her. "Simple…they were scared of what I had found." He said in a calm and collected voice. "I was studying our DNA, looking into what makes are weak and unique immunity system. Because of how our planet is we did not need a strong immune system, which made it difficult to live on other worlds…and even more when forced off our home world."

Slowly, he paced around her to a table, opening a case to take out a green colored canister which he stared at intently. "I pieced together how our unique physiology also made us immune to diseases in a way, since diseases with more serious symptoms to other races simply become flu like. While the intensity varies between disease and individuals, it shows our bodies can suppress and adapt. All we needed was to make it strong enough to prevent rapid infections which is the usual cause of death when we're exposed."

He placed the canister back in its case before looking to her, seeing the shock in her eyes as she backed away from him. "Y-you can't be serious!" She said to him in disbelief. "You would never go that far…to change us in such a way. Do you even knows the risks that this can bring!?"

"Of course! Every step I've calculated very faction and aspect! Yet in the end it is worth it!" He answered back quite angrily. "It has taken me years to fully understand our DNA and hundreds of thousands of credits to fund my projects. I have been forced to deal with all sorts of illegal work to get such money, but for the better of our race I did so. But even with all my work there was just something missing…something that I have recently found."

Slowly, he walked over to one giant test tube, pressing a hand against it as he looked at the twisted monster inside. "The necromorphs…a quite a special being indeed…for a virus." He said in a calm voice once more. "It was quite a shock really when they attacked from that ship. I was out when that happened and when I saw all those people getting cut down and infected I thought I was going to die…but you see these creatures just ignored me."

Turning away from the tube, he walked back toward her, but stopped when she had her hand drop down for her pistol. Giving a stern look to her, he kept his distance as he continued. "I figured these creatures can 'see' our genetic makeup. It allows them to find fitting hosts to change and to create more unique necromorph forms. Why they do so I unknown to me yet already I have theories. However…our DNA is different and with our unique immunity systems. The virus while adaptive can't match with our own changing cells, even in death there is no reanimation and mutation."

Tali was surprised at what he was saying, but was surprised at how their race was safe from these creatures. "Then why they attack me then?" She questioned, a more aggressive side hinted in her voice.

"Your…team are all perfect hosts to the necropmorphs. With you so close to them I believe they could not tell you apart from them for the moment…." He said, not mentioning how he had also been controlling the creatures as well. "But the point is Tali…I have been able to find that last bit of genetic code needed to change ours. The necromorphs have proven to have a mountain of useful genetic data and the virus is a perfect host for my formula. In fact…I have already taken it."

Slowly, he raised a hand up to his visor and started undoing the safety latches for it. "No don't!" Tali started, but it was too late as he pulled it aside, giving a deep breath of air, his eyes closed now. He was handsome as she remembered him back when they had the rare time outside of their suits; it pained her since she had cared so much about him, even after hearing all dark things he had done.

"Yes Tali…I did it…" He said in his smooth voice, a smile showing on his face. "I have the cure that will make our people strong. To beat the Geth and take our place in the galaxy! This is just a piece of my whole plan…and once it all comes together all the Quarains will follow me to take what is theirs!" And with that he opened his eyes, which instead of being the light purple she had remembered, had now become a dark green color.

"Oh Keelah…Ronza…what have you done. What have you done?!" Tali said out in fear, stepping back until her back pressed against the wall of the lab.

Slowly he walked up to her, until his face was inches from her masked face, an evil grin on his face as he looked into her eyes through her mask. "Simple Tali…I have become the future…" He said in a causal manner before giving a low laugh as he suddenly grasped at her arms. She knew he was fast having seen how he sparred yet his movement was little more than a blur to her. "And you will have this gift soon enough. I still needs to be tested after all."

He'd take away her pistol and shotgun before moving away from her, already getting a syringe gun loaded with that green canister. "So, please don't resist Tali. I'd rather not hurt you…" Yet the look in his eyes seemed to have a sadistic gleam in them, something that she knew was completely wrong.

Author note: I know I don't give a big description of Ronza's face or Isaac, but you all know how Isaac is and I have no idea what a Quarain looks like, so sorry if you don't like that. I hope Ronza's genetic change plan does not sound too absurd or anything, since it took me quite a while to think it up.

As for other aspects of the story, the Shadow Broker plotline hasn't happened yet so Liera isn't the Broker just yet. As for how the Illusive Man knows so much of the necromorphs it's because of his vast source of informants who no doubt reported the arrival. No doubt he'd also deduce the alternate reality aspect since the ship itself is vastly different to anything in the Mass Effect universe along with other clues gathered up.

Anyway the next chapter will hopefully come around soon enough. If anything this chapter was the biggest rewrite since I thought to add a whole scene detailing Ronza's motives more clearly.

Again everyone feel free to favorite and comment!


	6. Chapter 5: Conflict

**Notice:** Yah…Ummm…I've been gone for a long while. Let's just say a full time job, college, getting sick half a dozen times and playing WoW really got in the way. Overall I'm very sorry for this delayed for nearly a year. I plan to finish this and will be writing up more chapters since I'll have more time this summer. Also I am working on a special side crossover that will be very appealing for fantasy lovers.

 **Chapter Five: Conflict**

Shepard hurried along through the maze of massive ducts and catwalks that were hidden within the Citadel depths, checking up on his omni-tool every so often to check up on Tali's status. There was no point of hailing her because of the jamming signal yet his tracker still was monitoring her. She was alive if the life readings were correct and from what the map marker showed she was quite close. How luckily it was that the jammer didn't extend to the tactical tracker and maps.

Obviously something was going on as he thought over what had happened back at the transit station. The attack by those hulking creatures was far more coordinated then past encounters, showing that someone or something was pulling the strings around here. Already he was thinking over possible enemies from Cerberus to the Reapers yet nothing here fitted with their usual goals or methods. However he'd focus on his search as the tracker beeped faster as he seemed to near a larger hub space from what his map showed. Reaching a large slit duct, he'd hear a male voice, one muffled by what sounded like a respirator.

Moving up close he'd just see through the duct slits to see a large lab of some kind. It was quite the impressive set up from what he could see yet what disturbed him were the massive specimen tubs with some of those mutant creatures floating in them. Already Shepard was tense, drawing his shotgun while his attention went to the far side of the lab where he saw two figures.

One he instantly recognized was Tali who was backed up to the wall while the other an unknown male quarian. He heard just bits of their conversation yet knew from Tali's tone that she was shocked and even fearful. He'd see how the male quarian removed his mask and the pure shock Tali showed as he'd rise up a syringe gun with a green fluid in it, ready to inject her with it. Without hesitation Shepard acted, blasting a hole in the duct which set off a loud alarm in the lab. Leaping out of the vent, he saw the male quarian face him, surprise on his face…those unnatural green eyes seemed also curious as well.

"Shepard…well I can say you do live up to your reputation." The quarian chuckled in amusement. "I thought Brutes would have killed you yet considering how you defeated the Collectors, well…obviously it will take much more."

Yet as he spoke Tali lashed out with a punch, making Ronza suddenly twist about to grab her arm. Shepard blinked in surprise since that reaction speed was lightning fast.

"That was rude of you to interrupt-" He started before yelling out as a shock went through him, Tali's omni-tool lighting up, a catching the qurian off-guard. In his moment of confidence he had forgotten to take away her tool. He'd stagger back and dropped the syringe gun yet instantly he'd shake off the dazing effects. That sort of direct charge could have stunned a Korgan…yet even with steam coming off his body he seemed only slightly fazed.

"Keelah…what have you become." Tali muttered, moving away from the wall to not be cornered while Shepard moved up beside her.

"Better." Ronza simple said, panting as he clipped his face mask back on and activated his own omni-tool. Suddenly the massive test tubs hissed as thick green steam flowed out, fogging up the entire lab with a dense smoke screen.

"What are you hoping to accomplish here?!" Shepard yelled out, keeping close to Tali who borrowed his heavy pistol for the moment. Back to back they looked about, motion trackers just sensing Ronza lurking around…yet other signatures soon appearing.

"Sadly I've wasted enough time sharing my life story Shepard. All I can say is that you're an annoyance." The quarian yelled back. Suddenly they was a click off to the side, making Shepard turn about just as a barrage of SMG fire filled the air. Both his and Tali's shields flared as they ducked for cover yet at that moment the bone talons of one of those monster's slashed down at Shepard.

Quickly he brought his shotgun up to brace the attack, the sharp ends just inches from his face while the monster growled and howled. Twisting the weapon about, he made the creature lose its balance and fall onto its side while he blasted the necromorphs upper arms off and then a leg to finish it off. He'd hear Tali firing off in the smoke along with another burst of SMG rifle from the male quarian.

Again he weaved around cover yet Ronza seemed to be shifting his own position to keep Shepard on the move. Every so often a released creature lunged at him yet he'd fire off first before they got too close. At this point the smoke was clearing as he'd see the male quarian aiming at him from behind one opened specimen container. At that moment he'd kick in his suit's adrenaline injector, making the world shift into a slow pace. Moving to his belt he drew out a grenade and with a perfect throw tossed it at the quarian. Yet he was just as fast, leaping away as the grenade exploded, making glass and metal fly around.

Shepard hurried around to corner the quarian yet even when prepared he didn't expect the sudden fist striking at his jaw. The blow felt like Wrex had punched him as he staggered back yet he didn't let the pain stop him to dodge the following blow. Ronza's SMG had been damaged by the blast which explained his bold move into melee, lashing out with a mix of punches and kicks. He wasn't use to fighting such an agile opponent before as he tried to level his shotgun up for a shot yet his weapon was knocked out of his grasp with a strike to his wrist.

"Come on!" Ronza challenged before getting striked right at his chest. Shepard felt the snap of bone and heard the pained grunt from the quarian who staggered back…yet quickly lunged in to counter attack. Soon the two were locked in an intense fist fight, parrying, dodging and countering at each other. Tali stood by, watching the fight since she couldn't risk firing at Ronza without possibly hitting Shepard.

During the drawn out brawl, Shepard threw a strong punch right at the quarian's face yet was stopped as his masked opponent grasped his fist. Despite the soldier's augments and his combat suit giving him enhanced strength, he could feel his body straining trying to force the quarian arm back.

"Well this is surprising." Ronza chuckled, seeming amused at how he was overpowering humanity's greatest soldier. With a sudden shove, he flung Shepard through one of the empty tanks, glass and bio-fluid flying everywhere before having a rough landing on one of the metal lab tables. Grunting in pain, he struggled up while Ronza focused his attention on Tali.

She didn't hesitate to fire at him with her pistol, which quickly dropped his shields and even hit him directly. He'd grunt and stagger as if wounded yet sudden lunge forward with shocking speed at her. Tali tried to whip him with the large pistol, yet he ducked the attack and striked her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her and letting him easily disarm her with ease.

As Shepard struggled up from the mess of metal and glass, he'd see Ronza with Tali in front of him, pistol at her side. "No more fighting Commander. I don't wish to hurt her but I will if you resist." He spoke out, calm still after being shot and beaten. Despite his obvious wounds he seemed to be recovering, making Shepard wound if he had some advanced medical mod build into his suit…or something different about himself physically to other quarians he had met.

Getting up, he retrieved his assault rifle and aimed it at Ronza who kept his gun at Tali's side while he paced to the exit of the lab. "You have delay things Shepard yet not stopped it. The necromorphs you've seen are crude and unrefined. Besides on that ship lies something far more powerful!" The quarian declared, tugging Tali towards the door and using her as a human shield.

Deep red eyes showed behind it before the glass casing began to crack as the creature inside smashed away until the tube door flung off its hinges. At a glance it look just like a korgan without any armor, yet the scaled skin seemed aged into a rough leather from decay. Muscle mass seemed to have grown beyond natural limits since along the arms and legs the skin broke to see dense tissue. Bone matter had also grown out across the chest to enhance the mutated korgan's natural armor yet also formed along the forearms and wrists as a mix of short blades. The plating on its head had grown out into cruel horns which reminded Shepard of a dinosaur.

"It is amazing how the Korgan body reacts to the changes. Yet I've done my own touches to this subject." Ronza commented while the korgan gave deep grunting growls, those eyes hinting of a greater intelligence then the past creatures. "Do try to die this time Shepard. I can promise you Tali will be safe under my watch." With that he'd step out of the lab, pulling Tali with him as she'd yell out. "Shepard!" The door shut, a deep beep filling the lab as it went into lock down, trapping him

"Damn it!" Shepard cursed out while creature gave a deep beastly roar that reminded the commander of dinosaur movie he watched long ago. Picking up his combat shotgun, he paced around the creature, trying to keep lab equipment and steel fixtures between him and it, yet the creature shift about as well. The mutated korgan paced closer, seeming to be judging the strength of the commander before making any sudden attacks. Whenever it flexed its arms the sharp bone that pierced out seemed to grow out more into serrated blade.

Taking the initiative, Shepard opened fire as he aimed for the creature's head. He even fired a concussive shot right at it, striking directly and making the creature howl out as it staggered back. Yet without warning it rush forward, making Shepard dodge to the side the those bone horns ripped apart the crushed table behind him, flinging it away into one wall. Quickly Shepard fired along the creature's back yet the bone plating absorbed the shots and any they hit the decayed skin seemed to do little to the creature. He knew dismemberment was the key to slaying it yet all that plating and muscle made it impossible without heavy weaponry or biotics.

Again the creature turned to face him, bone blades fully extending out from its forearms for another attack. Already Shepard remembered why he relied so much on his team, making him wonder if they were doing any better than him. Priming his second to last grenade, he stared down the necromorphed krogan before it gave a primal roar before rushing forward in a goring charge.

…

"Damn it where's Shepard when you need him!" Garrus cursed as he and the rest of his team hurried along the railed catwalks, trying to escape the flying necromorphed Turians that were swarming from all directions. Every so often the team took quick shots with their weapons or biotics, shooting the winged horrors out of the air whenever they gave out a screech and tried to dive bomb them.

"Got some slashers incoming!" Grunt growled as the more standard necromophs crawled up onto the catwalk from below, trying to block their path. Yet for the young krogan he had no trouble bull rushing through him as he'd fire his shotgun point blank, flinging the roaring creatures off the side of the walk way or blasting them into gory chunks.

The next checkpoint door was just at the end of the catwalk and already Legion was bypassing it. Everyone else was just focused on the horde rushing at them, more slashers blindly charging at them, shredded and dismembered corpses piling up as a gruesome barrier yet even then more crawled or shoved through it.

Yet suddenly there was a piercing shriek, bone chilling and headache inducing that made everyone stop attack whether it be firing their weapons or unleashing biotics. Everything was quiet now as Garrus's team recovered, although Legion seemed unaffected as he focused on the door.

"Do you…feel that?" Jacob muttered, glancing to Miranda and Samara with a look of confusion and fear.

Garrus was more confused since the biotics looked pale, almost sickened by something. "What the hell do you mean?"

"This feeling. It's like the time I fought my daughter Morinth on Omega yet…for more intense." The asari justicar muttered, moving in front of the group, seeming drawn by whatever was beyond the wall of mutated corpses. She seemed tense, body surging with intense blue biotic energy. "It's like an Ardat-Yakshi yet changed…stronger…"

Before anyone could question yet there was the soft pat of footsteps just beyond the corpse wall before suddenly a resounding boom, the necromorph corpses being flung off the sides of the wide catwalk and into the abyss of the Citadel. Standing where the pile had been was a slender figure which at a glanced seemed like a naked asari at first yet the more horrific changes could be shown.

Unlike the other asari who were turned into slashers, this one seemed less mutilating, keeping a more 'normal' look. Yet the skin instead of a usual blue had turned a sickly teal and seemed more scaled, rougher from decay. At the shoulders were usual bladed limbs the slashers had yet they were shorter and more straight bladed then the scythe like design of the others. Cross the body bone had grown out as a covering across the form to cover breast the chest and lower body yet more crude pieces pokes or sharped out from the body. Yet what disturbed the team more was those eyes…a deep glowing green with a distant look to them. All across her form the hints of biotic energy could be seen yet like those eyes it had a sickly green to it instead of the usual blue.

"Get back." Samara stepped forward, Jacob and Miranda glancing at each other than the mutated Asari who gave a low groaning sound, its head tilting in a look of curiosity. Considering the fierceness the justicar showed, they'd obey her order as they backed up.

"I have the door unlocked!" Legion suddenly exclaimed, the security door sliding open loudly. Either triggered by the door opening or just coincidence, it give out a sudden cry like the one before. The air seemed to shimmer with some shockwave as biotic energy was mixed into that yell, flinging everyone except Samara to the wall, the asari using her own biotics to hold her ground.

"This creature…its biotic power is so raw yet powerful. This abomination must fall!" Samara showed a fierceness that none of the other team members had ever seen, even in past heated battles. She launched herself at the mutated asari who lunged at her, the shoulder limbs jabbing out while it flung green bursts of biotic energy at the justicar. The experienced asari was ready to block the blasts with a barrier before striking the necromorph across the face with a charged punch, the strength behind that biotic strike ripping the creature's jaw off. Yet it was unfazed as it shrieked out, the force of its cry making Samara flinch yet remain composed to grab at its bladed limbs which stabbed at her. "GO! I'll hold it off!" She yelled to the rest of the team, everyone still gawking at the titanic clash of biotic might.

"Walkway stability reaching critical limit!" Legion called out as indeed the wide metal catwalk was breaking and creaking.

"Damn it! Alright everyone more!" Garrus ordered out, everyone filing through the open security door with him going last. Turning to Samara, he'd see her struggling as the turned asari kept up a relentless assault with biotic and physical attacks. Yet the justicar looked at him, nodding she'd unleash another biotic wave that made the walkway break apart and fling the monstrous asari back violently.

The forced pushed the turian through the security door which then slammed shut, no doubt from the damage the biotic battle had caused. Getting up, he looked at the gathered team, looks of concern showing across their faces.

"Samara can handle herself. We all know she's one of the strongest biotics we have and has the most experience as well." He said, trying to get everyone focused. "Let's get that jammer taken down. Once we get that sorted out we'll go find her and the rest of the team."

Everyone nodded and muttered in agreement, knowing very well what was at stake here. After a moment catching their breath they continued on, heading out from the inner workings of the Citadel and back out into the streets of the Ward.

…

Eland paced around hidden entrance of the lab, being flanked by two advanced security robots along with a large grav-lift carrying supplies. He was already frustrated with Ronza's delays since they were meant to leave an hour ago. Ever since they had captured that quarian girl his partner had become obsessed with her and that worried the volus. They were at the edge of producing the greatest bioweapon in the galaxy yet he was fawning over a girl.

"Bad –sss- for business..." He muttered before he'd hear footsteps beyond the door.

Soon the quaran arrived, tugging the female one along with a pistol at her back. It wasn't hard to notice his injuries, mainly open bullet wounds along his suit along with his facemask being cracked. It worried Eland yet to his shock he saw the hole closing and the quaran male seeming unfazed about it.

"She's coming with us. Insurance in case we run into any of her teammates." Ronza simply stated as he'd nod for the robots to move up, one getting a pair of cuffs to bind Tali.

Eland kept silent, watching Ronza move to one supply box to get a new face mask before looking to the female qaurian who struggled a bit, cursing a bit in her kind's tongue.

"This is a mistake. –sss- She's a liability." The volus simply stated as he looked back at Ronza who had finished snapping his mask into place.

"She stays. That is final." The quarian sternly stated. "She's simply confused on the future I'm offering. Once we get into the Ishimura she'll realize the grand design I'm bringing."

The way he spoke had the volus nervous. Every hour he swore the quarian was becoming more and more fanatic which was becoming an issue. "Fine then. –sss- Yet if she causes trouble it's on your –sss- head." Activating his omni-tool, he'd order the robots forward, one moving the grav-lift and the other nudging Tali forward.

She'd give a spiteful look at Ronza who seemed to ignore her as he'd take the lead, loading a heatsink into his submachine gun. Eland hanged back as he waddled along, one hand just tapping the hidden holster he had on his tool belt…already debating what to do later.

…

"Fascinating! Achieving gravity control through gravitomagnetism. Technology behind it has only be theoretical for decades. Elemental zero seen as more practical in comparison." Mordin quickly remarked as he walked along side Isaac.

Right now the mechanic was having a hard time keeping watch and answering the alien scientist's rapid question, although it was it nice to talk to someone after days roaming around alone and constantly fighting to survive.

Jack and Thane were taking the lead as they continued towards main docking zone where the mining ship was, hoping to at least encounter Shepard or at least follow up one Isaac's plan.

"You think you can pilot that massive piece of junk all on your own?" Jack questioned the engineer.

"I have the captain's key and while I can't control all the ships functions I can at least move it. Did fix the engines and plenty of other components." He simply answered back.

"Damn…do they train all engineers like your universe to fix capital sized ships." Jack laughed out before suddenly gunfire filled the air.

Despite the surprise attack, Jack was quick to get a wide barrier up to cover the group as they hurried for cover while a group of armored mercenaries hurried out of hiding.

"Not Cerberus! Unknown faction, survivors no doubt!" Mordin yelled out before launching an incinerate at a heavily armored mercenary, burning quickly away at his armor.

Thane was providing cover fire with his sniper rifle, getting a clean headshot on one attacker farther back while Jack rushed in, firing her shotgun up close and blasting the mercs away with biotic blasts.

Isaac just watched at the whole fight, feeling really out of place considering. He had been fighting the necromorphs for days yet never had to deal with an enemy that could shoot back. However glance to the side he saw a three mercenaries who were trying to flank the group. Cursing as they shot at him, he'd keep low before peaking up and aiming his plasma cutter.

"There's the target. Shoot to kill!" One merc ordered before yelling out as Isaac fired at him.

Shielding would flare and burst before armored plating seemingly metaled as each repeated shot cut deeply into the merc. By habit, the next shot was right at the man's arm which soon was cut clean off, followed by horrified screams of pain.

"Holy fuck!?" One of the other mercs quickly grabbing his flailing partner as they'd pull him back to cover, retreating as they realized this engineer's tool was more dangerous than expected.

At this point the mercs were starting to thin out as Thane and Jack were fighting more aggressively while Mordin supported. Isaac kept back giving a shot or two, often getting a limb cut in the end.

"Damn it fall back!" One merc yelled as the group ran off down one side alley. The team didn't give chase, not wanting to be lured into another ambush or trap.

Once everything had calmed down, the team regrouped yet remained on guard for a counter attack or necromorphs possibly being drawn in from the fighting.

"Group seemed focused on you Isaac. Made any enemies since arriving?" Mordin questioned.

"Not at all! I haven't met anyone else around here until encountering your group." He'd remark back, a bit annoyed at the remark.

"Mordin meant no offense. He's just a bit…blunt at times. Point is someone obviously wants you dead." Thane quickly pointed out, trying to quickly calm the situation before moving to examine one of the dead mercenaries. "The marking is familiar…Zaeed brand by the looks of it."

"Always the sharp one Thane." A gruff voice spoke up before the hum of a heavy weapon was heard. The whole group turned about to see the aged mercenary standing on store ledge, aiming a rocket launcher at the group.

Issac was tense, yet glancing to the others they seemingly lowered the guard. Jack laughed out, crossing her arms as she smirked at Zaeed. "You crazy old fuck! Nearly ripped you in half when you showed yourself."

The old man laughed, lowering his launcher before slinging up onto his back. "Sure kid…if you say so." Dropping down onto the street, he'd walk up to the group and glace over each person, stopping at Isaac. "So you're the sob that Eland wanted dead? Not that impressive really." Shrugging, he'd look at Mordin. "After we separated at Omega, I didn't expect to run into you guys so soon. Still got a lot done in a few weeks. Got a small well equip group of men…which you killed half of." Sighing, he'd scratch his neck in annoyance, giving his usual grimace. "That aside I take Shepard's with you? If that is the case we can easy sort things out if you can get me out of here."

"Commander is missing currently. Split up to save Tali who was captured." Mordin quickly explained as he'd do so area scans. There were distant howls and gunfire in the distance, making everyone pause for a tense moment. "We'd best move on. Fighting no doubt drew necromorphs. The fleeing mercenaries will distract them at the least."

Zaeed seemed annoyed having to lose all his men, yet gave a growl and nod. "Fine! So what is the plan doc?" Mordin paused, thinking over options. "Continue the mission. We need to get onto the mining ship. Isaac has captain codes, can fly ship by himself and off station." With his scans done, he'd point down one side alley. "Mapped new route, we should arrive at main docking this way."

Everyone hurried along with Mordin taking the lead while Zaeed followed up at the back of the group. "So what about the outbreak here? There must be thousands of rotters on the Citadel…it takes months to clear them out by my guess."

Isaac was silent as he followed the team, thinking over everything about the Necromorphs. Again he kept remembering Nicole's words about how the Marker was the key to it all. Perhaps that was the answer to all of this and in turn saving everyone.

"Guys…It may be crazy but I have one idea to fix all of this." He said, making everyone slow down and glance at him.

Zaeed gave a small grunt and odd look to him. "Really now? And what would that be?"

Pausing for a moment, Isaac took a moment to get his helmet off, feeling he needed talk straight with everyone on this. His expression was dead serious, eyes tired and blood shot from stress and lack of sleep. "I need to tell you about the Marker…"


End file.
